One Where Izuku is Raised as a Villain
by purpleswans
Summary: A series of interconnected one shots describing an AU where Izuku is a villain. May be rewritten at a later day to form a more coherent story. Warnings for graphic violence, references to child abuse, guns, and emotional manipulation. Recommended Reading order: 4, 5, 12, 8, 20, 1, 3, 14, 10, 17, 9, 25, 16, 19, 22, 23, 21, 2, 6, 7, 13, 11, 15, 18, 24
1. Chapter 1: Izuku's Bad Dream

So... A while ago I came up with a very elaborate Villain!Izuku AU, but I didn't have the time or energy to write a whole fic about it. But with Villain Month going on, I decided to write excerpts of this AU as one shots so I can get some of it out of my system and on the internet, with the understanding that it isn't the complete story. I'm trying to write as much as I can, but I'm not concerned with fixing inconsistencies yet or organizing the chapters so the reader can follow the story easily. I'll add a recommended reading order to the summary when I have enough that it makes a difference, but if you ever get confused I'd recommend checking out this outline on my tumblr. Still, I hope you enjoy this as much as you can!

Izuku Age 8

* * *

_"Deku! What the hell is a useless fucker like you doing as a villain?"_

_"Kachan! Wait, let me explain…"_

_"Screw you Deku! You were always worthless, now you're just less than that. But me? I'm a hero, the greatest hero ever, better than even All Might!"_

_Katsuki Bakugo placed his hand on Izuku's face. "And this is what heroes do to villains like you!"_

_An explosion, a flash of red, and blinding pain._

Izuku woke up screaming.

His breathing caught when he realized where he was. He wasn't in his old room filled with All Might posters and hero merchandise. His mother wasn't down the hall, ready to rush in and comfort him.

He was is the house of monsters, the one All For One sent him to after killing his father. Even if he was somehow able to get an All Might poster in here, Tomura would have destroyed it the moment he saw it. The only things that showed heros in a positive light were the handmade notebooks Izuku had placed on his shelf. The only people in the house where Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri, with the possibility of All for One coming to see them.

Izuku wasn't sure which was worse: reality or the nightmare.

_Bang!_

Shigaraki was standing in the open doorway to Izuku's room. "Oi, brat! What happened."

Izuku jumped. "N-Nothing! It was nothing, Tomura. Go back to sleep."

Tomura stayed in the doorway. "It didn't sound like nothing. You were screaming bloody murder. Did a hero break in or something?"

Izuku fidgeted and twiddled his thumbs under Tomura's glare. "I had a nightmare," he finally admitted.

Tomura stayed in the doorway.

After what felt like several awkward minutes, the older boy sighed. "You want some water?"

Izuku looked at Tomura, and nodded weakly. He wasn't particularly thirsty, but it could be a way to get his mind off the bad dream.

Tomura walked down to the kitchen, turning on the lights as he went and making his way to the cabinets. Izuku followed behind, like a timid shadow. Tomura took a clean glass from the shelf - his pinky finger raised in a characteristic hold - and filled it with water from the tap. He then put it down on the table nearby.

"Sit, Izuku. Drink the water."

Izuku sat down in front of the glass and started to drink, tiny sips so he wouldn't get a tummy ache. Tomura got himself a drink of water and sat down across from Izuku.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Izuku looked up. "About what?"

"Your nightmare."

Izuku set his glass down and looked at the table. "It's stupid. You'll make fun of me."

Tomura didn't say anything, just continued to take sips from his glass.

Izuku traced imperfections in the table with his finger, avoiding looking at Tomura as he spoke. "It was someone I knew before I came here. We were friends one, but, well… He has this really strong quirk. Explosion. He sweats Nitroglycerin, and creates sparks with his hands that makes it explode. He always said he was going to become a hero, the strongest that ever was, as strong as..."

Izuku stopped himself from saying _All Might_. He really didn't want to get into an argument with Tomura for no reason.

"With his quirk, I know he'll make it. He'll be a pro and will fight villains and will be amazing. He wasn't very nice to me because I was quirkless, but now that I… I'm going to be… Sensei will want me to work for him someday, I'll be considered a villain and Kachan will come after me too."

Izuku could feel tears starting to build up in his eyes. He quickly brushed them away and took another sip of water.

"Heroes are pretty scary, aren't they?" Tomura said.

Izuku looked up. Tomura looked serious, and didn't appear to be making fun of the younger boy and his irrational fears.

"Especially the strong ones," Tomura continued. "I'm worried about what I'd do if I have to face them. It has to be a lot worse for you, since you're so young and 'cause you're quirkless."

Izuku ducked his head to hide the tears that were coming back. Even after all this, hearing someone call him "quirkless" still hurt.

"But that's not going to be the case forever."

Izuku looked up in awe at Tomura. He'd never heard the older boy give him encouragement. Kurogiri sometimes praised him for completing his lessons, and All For One would compliment him if he was doing well in his training, but Tomura rarely spoke to Izuku except to belittle him.

"In five years, you'll be my age, and believe me being 13 is a lot better than being 8. Plus, Sensei said he'd give you a quirk, didn't he? And knowing Sensei, I'm sure he'll pick a quirk that's much better than that hero wanna-be in your dream. You'll be stronger someday, and until then Sensei and Kurogiri and I will look out for you."

Izuku could feel the tears coming back, but for a different reason. He got up from the chair, ran over to Tomura on the other side of the table, and hugged him.

"Thank you, Tomura-nii. Thank you."

Tomura didn't react at first, but slowly touched four fingers to the back of Izuku's head and another four to his lower back, in what was probably a hug.


	2. Chapter 2: Himiko Toga's Love Language

**I love Toga, but I'm a little worried about how I'm writing her. If any of you have constructive criticism, feel free tell me in the comments.**

* * *

Three days after Izuku uploaded Stain's manifesto, two people showed up at the bar asking to join the League of Villains. One of them was a man with a combustion quirk and was covered in scars. His name was Dabi and he didn't get along with Tomura at all, which made Izuku like him immediately.

The other person who joined was a blond high school girl named Himiko hadn't been there for more than a minute and was already making Izuku's life difficult.

"You've got such pretty green eyes. Not as pretty as blood-red, but it's like looking over a dense forest." She said, leaning her face in much too close for Izuku's comfort.

"Ah, thank you?" Izuku said, hoping that would be enough to make her back off.

Toga's face broke into a wide, toothy grin. "I like you! I want to see more of your blood!"

"Ummm… I'd rather you not."

"Hey! Give Izuku some breathing room!" Uraraka shouted, running over to pull the new girl off him.

Once Toga was a reasonable distance from Izuku's face, Uraraka ran back to him. "Deku, are you okay?"

Izuku waved her off. "It's fine, it was no big deal. I'm sure Toga was just excited, right?" he asked, trying to give the new girl a chance to explain herself.

Toga, however, just looked at Izuku and Uraraka with a thoughtful expression. "Are you two together?"

"Wha-Whaaaa?"

"N-No it's not li-like that! You've got it all wrong!"

Toga tilted her head. "But you two do like each other, right?"

Izuku opened his mouth to reply, but closed it when he realized he had no idea what was an appropriate response.

Uraraka was apparently just as flustered, since she didn't say anything either.

Toga, however, just smiled creepily again. "We should be great friends!" she shouted, tackling Uraraka.

"Ah, good," All For One's voice spoke through the TV. "All of you should try to get along with your new allies."

"Yay!" Toga cheered, still clinging to Uraraka. "Hey, Uraraka, is it? Can I see some of your blood?"

Izuku could already feel a headache coming on.

—-

For a while, Izuku tried to avoid Toga. This was easier said than done, since the girl enthusiastically ran up to him every time she saw him, but Izuku was used to retreating to his room and pretending to be busy. He wasn't even pretending very often.

Eventually though, Izuku realized he needed some information that only Toga could provide. And so, he actually sought her out.

"Hey Toga?"

"Izukun!" Toga enthusiastically tackled him with a hug, throwing herself too far into Izuku's personal space for comfort.

"Uh-um, can I ask you something?" Izuku said, trying to shrug off the uncomfortable position he was in.

"Sure! Can I cut you? It doesn't even have to be a big cut."

Izuku swallowed, and continued on like she hadn't said more than the first word. "Well, I'm not sure if you've heard yet, but I'm usually in charge of planning the League of Villains' operations ahead of time so everyone can use their quirks to their greatest advantages, and so we're less likely to get caught off-guard by heroes…"

Izuku realized he was starting to mumble again. "Anyway, in order to plan I need to know what everyone's quirks are as well as any obvious strengths and weaknesses in battle. I already know about Tomura-nii and Kurogiri's quirks, and Dabi told me his quirk right off the bat but I don't know yours yet, so could you please tell me what your quirk is and what it does?"

He really needs to stop talking so much when he needs something. According to Tomura, it creeped people out.

"Oh! You want to know my quirk? That's easy! It's called Transform and lets me turn into another person if I've drunk their blood."

Izuku looked at her in shock. "You can transform into other people? That's amazing! It'll probably be really useful for surveillance and stealth missions, though we'd have to be careful that the original person doesn't show up while you're impersonating them…"

Toga smiled. "Yep! I'm an expert at impersonating people. I've never been caught in the act."

Izuku's mind whirled from the possibilities with Toga on the team until he remembered another detail about her quirk. "Wait, did you say your quirk was blood based?"

"It is. I can transform into a person for longer the more of their blood I drink."

"So that's why you're so interested in other people's blood?" Izuku had read somewhere that people are usually attracted to things related to their quirk. Whether this was because of the power it made them feel or a biological tick to ensure their quirk was discovered was still being debated by scientists.

"Uh-huh. I love seeing people covered in blood! And whenever I meet someone I like, I want to become them, so I need to get their blood. Like with Stainy, I wish I was able to get some of his blood so I could become him and truly know what he's like!"

Well, this certainly explained some of her eccentricities. As well as why she had ended up as a villain. Society certainly wouldn't be willing to accept a girl obsessed with blood, at least not right now. Izuku could sympathize with that.

"Thank you for telling me this Toga. If you really want, I'll let you take a little of my blood."

Toga squealed. "You'd really do that? Oh thank you, thank you Deku!"

"…Please don't call me that. And you can only take a little. Don't cut more than what can be easily fixed with a bandaid. And please use a clean knife or whatever."

As Toga tracked down a clean scalpel and small jar, Izuku started to think of ways to help her get what she wanted without coming off as creepy.

—-

"Toga? I've got something for you." Izuku said a few days later.

She eagerly joined Izuku in his makeshift office above the bar.

"First, Giran supplied this." Izuku pulled out a complicated contraption containing large needles, two large cylinders, and a mask that only covered the mouth. "They're state-of-the-art. If the needles stick someone, the suction mechanism will take their blood and store them in the cylinders. The cylinders then attaches directly to the mask, allowing you to drink blood for your quirk. This should give you an edge in battle situations, or when you're able to collect a lot of blood from different people."

Toga tried it on and looked in a mirror. "It's not cute," she said, disappointed.

"Sorry, it's all I was able to get on short notice," Izuku explained. He personally focused on functionality over style when choosing gear, but he should have figured the girl would think differently. "If it helps, I've got more things for you."

Toga put the contraption down and returned to Izuku's side.

Izuku pulled out a medical syringe, a blood sample tube, and a bandaid. "You can use this to get blood from someone if you aren't in a combat situation, and especially if you're friendly with the other person. Just attach the sample tube to the syringe," Izuku popped the two pieces together, "put the needle in their arm or somewhere else appropriate," he tried to hide the wince as the needle pierced his skin, "and let the blood flow. When you're done, just remove the syringe, apply a bandaid, and pop the sample tube out of the syringe."

Toga looked at the blood filling the sample tube with fascination, but frowned when Izuku pulled the needle out. "It isn't as pretty as just cutting people up."

"Maybe, but people would be more willing to let you take their blood with this method, plus it's more subtle. I may try to find a stronger needle so you can stick it through a person's clothes on the street and collect blood without alerting them too much," Izuku explained. "Also, this method is used to get blood for medical tests, so we can get supplies by stealing from hospitals or doctors' offices."

Toga took the sample tube from Izuku, and eyed both it and the syringe. "I'm not sure how I like it, but since you went out of your way to get this for me I'll try it. Maybe Uraraka will finally let me have some of her blood!"

Izuku smiled. "I'm sure that when you explain why you want to 'become her,' she'll let you use the needle."

"Alright! I'll do that! Thanks, Deku."

"…Again, I'd rather you not call me that." _At least not yet._


	3. Chapter 3: Tragedy Tainted by Hope

One day, when Izuku was 9 and Tomura was 14, Kurogiri told them they were going to see the Master.

Tomura's face brightened. He'd spoken to Izuku a few times that he was frustrated Sensei hadn't visited them in over a month.

Izuku, however, noticed something was wrong.

"Why are we going to see him?" Izuku asked. "Sensei usually comes to us."

"Stupid brat!" Tomura barked. "Sensei is a busy man. You're lucky he's inviting you to see him at all."

Kurogiri, however, didn't say anything in response to Izuku's question. That, in itself, was more worrying.

Instead, he just opened a portal for the two boys to walk through.

The exited the portal into a dark room. It smelled of antiseptic and blood. Pipes lined the walls and covered the ceiling, all leading to a large machine in the farthest edge of the room. This machine was under the only light source in the room, casting dark short shadows on the ground and making the whole place look more imposing. Izuku couldn't see what the machine was, but he could hear hydraulics and wheezing, so he knew whatever it was, it was running. A short man in a white coat blocked Izuku's view of whatever the light was illuminating.

All for one's voice filled the room. "Leave me, I wish to speak to the boys alone."

"Yes sir." The short man in a white coat bowed and walked away. Izuku thought his voice sounded somewhat familiar, but couldn't place where he'd heard it before.

He wasn't able to consider that for very long, since the sight in front of him made both Izuku and Toumura gasp in surprise.

All For One was reclining in an elaborate chair, surrounded by various tubes, bandages, and mechanical parts. An ugly, black mask covered his mouth. His upper face was covered in gauze and scar tissue, turning the previously regal face into a grotesque mess. Izuku couldn't even tell if he still had eyes. The rest of his body in terrible shape, particularly in his lower abdomen where the white bandages were stained red.

With a start, Izuku realized the machine and the sounds it was making was a life support system.

Somewhere, a soft, quiet bout of laughter reached Izuku's ears.

"Tomura Shigaraki, please come here. I want to see you."

Tomura ran up to him. "Sensei! What happened? Who did this to you? I'll destroy them! I'll destroy anyone who hurts Sensei."

The scars on All For One's face distorted a bit; Izuku guessed that he was trying to smile. "I assure you, you'll get the chance to destroy him. You already know of him and my hatred of him."

"All Might!" Tomura snarled, shaking with anger. "I'll destroy him! I promise you Sensei, I'll make him pay for hurting you."

_All Might was the one who injured All For One._

All For One lifted a hand - in its current state, Izuku likened it to a spiny claw - and patted Tomura's head like he always did. "I'm sure you will. I wanted to let you know that I may not be able to move as well as I used to, but I will still continue to guide you until you're ready to make you own way."

Tomura let out a pitiful sob.

"Kurogiri, would you please take Tomura back home? I wish to speak to Izuku in private." All For One said, sending the older boy towards the warp villain.

Once both of them were alone, All For One spoke to Izuku.

"Does my current state amuse you, child?"

"Huh?" Izuku was confused. "Of course not, sir."

"Then why are you laughing?"

He was right. Without realizing it, Izuku had started to laugh softly. It was his laughs that he'd been hearing in the background since casting eyes on All For One.

Izuku tried to fight the laughs racking his body and the grin splitting his face, but all that did was make his eyes watery.

"I-I don't know wha-why." he said, breathlessly.

All For One tilted his head. "I do. You think that I've gotten weaker; that I can be defeated now. In a way, you're not wrong - I'm considerably weaker right now than I was before my recent battle. But even as I am right now, someone like you could never hope to destroy me."

Izuku lowered his eyes to the ground. He noticed a power cord laying on the ground not far from his feet. Idly, he wondered what would happen if he disconnected it from the wall socket.

"Also, I won't stay this weak for long. I have already acquired a healing quirk, and am beginning to regain my strength. The only hero alive today who could ever land a blow on me is All Might, but I was able to mortally wound him. Even if he doesn't die from it or disappear from the spotlight, there's no way he will be the same hero he was before."

Izuku sucked in a breath through his teeth. _All Might won't be able to continue as the #1 hero._

"I already explained to you the nature of All Might's borrowed quirk, how it originally came from me and my younger brother. How he's been lying to society this whole time, and is only as strong as he is because of those that came before him. You know this, so you need to give up on this childish admiration of a liar."

Mutely, Izuku nodded. _All Might won't save me. None of the heros are going to save me._

All For One leaned back again. "You are a valuable asset for the future. You'll be Tomura's right-hand man once you're both grown, and I'll give you a quirk worthy of your unique talents. Don't let the lies of Hero society taint you anymore."

"Yes, Sensei." _I have to make the most of my situation._

All For One pushed a button and Kurogiri returned to take Izuku home. Once he got to his own room, Izuku closed the door and broke down in hysterical laughter-tears.

_All for One isn't an all-powerful god. He's mortal, he can get hurt, he can die._

_But so can All Might._


	4. Chapter 4: Dragged Away

When Hisashi Midoriya walked through the door, both his wife and son where surprised to see him.

"Daddy!" Izuku enthusiastically ran up and hugged the father he hadn't seen in 3 years.

"Hey kiddo! How have been? Are you being good for Mommy?"

Izuku nodded. "Yep!"

Inko, on the other hand, looked at her husband wearily. She'd never told Izuku this, but the reason was always gone for "work" was because he couldn't handle having having a quirkless child. It wasn't that he didn't love his wife and child, but quirklessness carried a certain stigma nowadays and Hisashi didn't handle it well.

"Izuku, why don't you show you father the most recent report card?" She asked.

Izuku brightened up and ran to his room to find his report card.

Inko turned to her husband. "Hisashi, what are you doing here?"

Hisashi gave her a tense smile. "Come on, can't a guy come see is wife and kid once in a while?"

"_Hisashi_."

His face turned serious. "I found a way to fix Izuku."

Inko grit her teeth. "Izuku doesn't need _fixing_. My son isn't broken."

"Just hear me out babe. There's this specialist, they say he can take unwanted quirks away and give quirks to people who don't have them. Doesn't that sound like what Izuku needs?"

"What Izuku needs is for people to stop judging him for being quirkless!"

Hisashi took a deep breath, smoke coming out of his nostrils. "Maybe, but -"

"Daddy? Mommy? Why are you fighting?"

Izuku had returned with his report card, and was looking at the two adults with wide eyes.

Hisashi stepped forward first to comfort their son. "It's nothing, kiddo. Mom and Dad are just having a disagreement." He kneeled down to look Izuku in the eyes as he said this.

Izuku frowned. "You shouldn't fight. Daddy is finally home, so today is a happy day!"

Hisashi chuckled. "You're right of course. So, how have you been doing in school?" He took the report card and looked it over. "Wow! All A's? That's great Izuku! I'm sure you'll succeed at whatever you want to do."

Izuku beamed.

"Do you still want to be a hero?"

Inko suddenly realized what Hisashi was doing, but was unable to stop him.

Izuku looked a little sad, but nodded. "I do! I know it will be hard without a quirk, but I won't give up!"

"What if you could get a quirk of your own?"

Izuku looked confused. "But- But daddy, the doctor said I would never have a quirk."

"Yes, but what if you could get one anyway?"

Izuku's eyes lit up. "You mean it?"

"Of course. I know somebody who should be able to give you a quirk. Do you want to meet him?"

Inko looked at Izuku's pure joy and could feel her resolve crumbling. Despite how much she had tried to help him, this was all Izuku had ever wanted.

Inko sighed. "Fine, I'll let you do this. Just… Just tell me who this specialist is and where to set up an appointment."

Hisashi scratched the back of his head. "About that… Apparently the only way to see him is by meeting his associate in a set place and time… and the only time I could find was this evening."

Inko narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"Yeah, so we should be going soon…"

Inko grabbed Hisashi's arm. "Don't you think that's a little suspicious? Did this specialist even look at Izuku's medical records?"

The steam coming out of Hisashi's nostrils was getting thicker. "Look, honey, he doesn't need that info. And he's the only person in Japan who could provide that kind of service…"

"Have you even MET the man?"

"No, not yet, but we'll do so tonight. Now, come on Izuku."

Inko grabbed Izuku and wrenched him out of Hisashi's grasp. "Use your head Hisashi! I won't let you put Izuku in danger to see a suspicious 'specialist' who sounds too good to be true!"

Flames started to come out of Hisashi's mouth. It wasn't very often, but when he loses his temper he tends to lose control of his quirk as well.

"This is Izuku's only chance to have a normal life!" he shouted.

"Do you really think this will fix all of Izuku's problems? He may not be willing to tell me, but I know he's getting bullied at school. How could getting a quirk fix that?"

"If he has a quirk, the other kids won't bully him! And even if they do, he'll be able to fight back!"

"Oh yes, because that's what we should be teaching our son to do. Fight violence with more violence."

Hisashi threw up his hands and turned away from his wife and child. "You have no idea what I had to do to get this meeting."

"Really? Well, what did you have to do? Please tell me, so I can yell at you for falling for such a scheme!"

Hisashi violently spun around to face her. "You know what, Inko -"

"Mom, Dad…"

"Hush, Izuku. Mom and dad are talking." Inko said.

"Mom! Dad! The coat rack!"

The two adults turned to look at the coat rack. At some point, probably when he was turning to yell at Inko again, Hisashi's breath had set one of the coats on fire. Before their very eyes, the flames spread to the rest of the coat rack and began to creep along the walls.

A second later, the fire alarm went off.

Inko ran to the kitchen, where she kept a fire extinguisher. She pulled the pin while running back to the site of the fire, only to see Hisashi pulling Izuku out the front door.

Inko didn't think. She just dropped what she was holding and ran after her son. "Izuku!"

Izuku looked back at her, and shouted "Mommy!"

Suddenly, a flaming support beam fell in front of Inko cutting her off from her baby.

Inko ran in the other direction, jumping through the window, sprinting down the fire escape, and racing out to the street. She didn't care about the fire anymore, she just wanted to get to Izuku.

But she wasn't able to.

The next day, authorities would find Hisashi's corpse in the burt-out apartment.

Inko didn't see her baby again for nearly a decade, at which point he'd changed into someone she could barely recognize.


	5. Chapter 5: The Father was Relapaced

Izuku couldn't stop shaking. Where was dad taking him? Why didn't he let Izuku stay with mom? What about the fire in the apartment?

Dad stopped in front of a warehouse. The place looked empty, so Izuku couldn't figure out why they were stopping here of all places. Dad opened the door, so at least it wasn't locked.

Gently, Dad guided Izuku through the door into the building. Without any light it was impossible to tell if it was truly empty or not, or even how big the room was.

"Hello? Is Kurogiri here?" Dad called into the void.

"This is Kurogiri. I assume you are Hisashi Midoriya?"

The voice seemed to speak from the blackness, but when Izuku squinted his eyes he could just make out a metal collar surrounded by mist. The metal collar came closer, revealing that the mist was actually the black, semi-corporal form of some being. Most likely the effect of a quirk.

Dad squeezed Izuku's hand. "I am. This is my son, Izuku. I presume you are here to bring us to the man who can give quirks?"

"Yes. I and my master have heard of your situation, and should be able to help." A piece of the black mist detached itself from the main body and swirled into a misty mass larger than Izuku's dad. "Please, step through this and it will bring you to the master."

Izuku still couldn't stop shaking. Something about this situation seemed completely _wrong_ and would end _badly_, but he couldn't make his voice work to tell Dad.

And so, father and son simply walked through the large, black mass into another room.

This new room was lit better than the warehouse, but only just barely. A single lamp illuminated a small space on the opposite side of the room. Within the sphere of light, a tall man in a business suit sat behind an ornate desk.

Izuku's dad approached the desk, and the man behind it stood up to greet him.

"Ah! Mr. Midoriya, it's good to finally meet you. You can call me All for One." The mysterious man introduced himself.

_That's an odd name_, Izuku thought. _More like a hero or villain name_.

"It's a pleasure," Izuku's dad said. "Are you the person who can give Izuku a quirk?"

"Yes, I am." All for One said with a friendly smile. "I'm sorry to cut to the chase, but I would like to discuss payment."

"Oh! Yes! I have quite a bit of money in savings, and if it's not enough I can sell or refinance my car…"

All or One continued to smile. "You misunderstand. I have no need for your money, and would much rather you do a favor for me."

"Well, in that case I'll see what I can do."

"Wonderful!" All for One reached inside his desk and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Izuku's dad.

"Tell me, Hisashi Midoriya, do you recognize this new hero?"

Izuku crept forward and looked at what was in his Dad's hand. Hisashi was squinting his eyes and biting his lip, clearly lost as to what he was looking at. However, Izuku recognized the hero at a glance.

"That's Kamui Woods," Izuku said. "His quirk, Arbor, lets him control the wood of his body. He can extend branches from his body and wrap it around people. This lets him capture villains with a solid body easily. He can also use the branches to move people he's rescuing. It's most effective as a long-range quirk, but can be used against short-range enemies as well…"

All for One laughed. "My, Izuku, you really know a lot about heroes." He gave Izuku a calculating look. "Tell me, do you have any idea what his quirk's weaknesses might be?"

Izuku frowned. He'd figured it out easily and wrote all this in his notebook, but he wasn't sure why All for One was interested in that specific information. "Well, his wood is only so strong. The branches can be broken easily so long as he doesn't get the chance to make them thicker. Also, he's weak to fire and explosions since his wood is flammable."

"That's right, Izuku. Kamui Woods is weak to fire-based quirks, such as your father's fire breathing." All For One looked back at Izuku's dad. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Dad dropped the picture. "You're not… you don't mean…"

"If you need assistance, I'd be more than happy to provide resources, gear, and other men, but you will still have to be the one responsible for the finishing blow…"

"NO! No, I can't… Your price is too high." Dad grabbed Izuku's hand again. "Izuku, turns out this man can't help us. We're leaving."

Izuku didn't fully understand, but let dad lead him away. He didn't like how this place felt anyway.

All For One sighed. "Such a shame. I had hoped to make more use of you and your quirk Mr. Midoriya."

Izuku was facing away from All For One, so he didn't notice his next movement. What he did notice, was how Dad suddenly stopped and his hand started shaking, grasping Izuku's with more force. And so, Izuku turned to see what made dad stop like that and screamed in horror.

All For One had stabbed his hand through Dad's upper torso. The tips of his fingers - deformed to razor-sharp tips due to some quirk - were sticking out of Dad's chest where his heart should be. Blood was leaking between the fingers, and stained the edge of Dad's mouth as he coughed.

"Izuku... Run…" Dad said weakly.

Izuku immediately dropped his father's hand, turned around, and ran. He had no idea where the exit to this room was, but just knew that he had to get way from this monster, this murderer, this _villain_.

Izuku ran into the blackness, barely registering the dim wall several feet in front of him. His view became clouded by a dark mist, but Izuku just continued to run.

Two steps later, a hand on his shirt stop him in his tracks. Izuku tried wiggling out of the hold, but the hand held tight. He turned to see the hand holding him and figure out a way to break their hold only to realize… It was All For One. He was right back next to All For One who was holding him with one hand and taking his other hand out of Dad's chest.

How had he...

"Thank you, Kurogiri."

Right. The person who'd originally brought him here. His quirk must give him the ability to move people instantaneously, either through some warping mechanism or wormholes…

Izuku shook his head. Get out now, theorize about quirks later.

"Let me go!" he shouted. "Please!"

"Now now, Izuku. Don't you still want a quirk of your own?" All for One sounded genuinely concerned for Izuku. He might have been convincing if he wasn't actively shaking Dad's blood off his hand.

Tears welled up in Izuku's eyes. "Not like this! You're a murderer! A villain! I'm going to become a Hero just like All Might and DEFEAT YOU!"

All For One laughed. "Oh child. You really don't understand a thing about how the world works. I'll look forward to teaching you."

Big fat tears fell from Izuku's eyes as the reality of his situation sunk in. _Please, All Might, Kachan, somebody, save me!_

Izuku was in the hands of a villain, and there was no chance of escaping on his own.


	6. Chapter 6: The Split a Long Time Coming

**I ended up editing this one in a hurry, and am not very satisfied with how it came out. Let me know if you have specific suggestions for improvements.**

* * *

"You want me to help you capture WHO?"

Tomura blinked. "I want you to come up with a plan to capture Katsuki Bakugo. Probably at the UA hero course's summer training camp, since they won't expect us then."

Izuku stared at Tomura. "Why? What possible goal would it serve?"

"Recruitment," Tomura explained. "You saw how he acted in the sports festival. He's a kindred spirit, and his quirk would be useful to the league."

Izuku still couldn't couldn't comprehend Tomura's plan. "Throwing a tantrum for not winning a competition the way they wanted to doesn't mean that person will join your League of Villains. Ka- Bakugo joined the hero course for a reason. He's not going to willingly join people he knows are villains!"

"We'll convince him once we have him. After all, Sensei and I have done it before."

Izuku clenched his fist. He didn't need a reminder of how he joined the League. "That took 8 years, Tomura. There's no way you'll be able to keep Kachan that long. Even if he isn't able to break out on his own, the heroes will be actively looking for him." He was so angry, Izuku didn't even notice he'd accidentally called Bakugo by his childhood nickname.

"We can handle any heroes that get close enough. And what does this Kachan person have to do with anything? Wasn't that the name of your childhood bully?" Tomura said.

Izuku took a deep breath. He'd been terrified by the thought of Kachan coming after him when he was a kid, so of course Tomura had picked up on that. "Kachan is what I called Bakugo when we were kids. They're one in the same. _That's_ why I wanted to handle him myself during our USJ attack."

Tomura gave Izuku a calculating look. They were both in the bar area, so several of the other members were watching their exchange. The whole room was silent, except for running water from Kurogiri cleaning dishes.

Tomura shrugged. "Well, whatever. You need to get over it anyway. I'm sure you'll work it out once you start working together."

_Wow, you're a huge hypocrite._ Tomura was still holding a grudge against the society that hadn't helped him twelve years ago, and he was telling Izuku to just "get over it?" Then again, he rarely took Izuku's feelings or needs into account.

_Enough is enough._

"I won't do it."

Tomura narrowed his eyes. "What did you say?"

"I won't help you capture Kachan. And if you do, I won't work with him. If you intend to bring Katsuki Bakugo into the League of Villains, then I'll leave."

"You wouldn't dare. You have nowhere else to go. Sensei has been providing for you all this time."

"Doesn't matter. I won't be your puppet anymore."

Tomura lunged at Izuku, hands ready to strike. "You little…"

On a normal day, Izuku would have flinched, backed away, and groveled. If Izuku hadn't been able to get away in time, Kurogiri would have opened portals where Toura's hands were to stop the fight. But today, Izuku realized he didn't have to grovel. He'd spent years watching how Tomura fought and he knew the best way to stop Tomura's quirk.

Izuku pulled out a pen from his notebook - there were always two attached to it, in case one ran out of ink - and held it firmly by one end. Careful to keep his body parts out of Tomura's immediate reach, he threaded the tip of the pen through Tomura's thumb and index finger. In the same motion, he threaded the pen tip out through the middle and ring fingers. This not only allowed Izuku to block Tomura's hand, but also kept the index and middle fingers from wrapping around the same thing as the rest of his hand.

Someone gasped on the other side of the room.

Tomura was clearly angry at this, and continued to attack with his other hand. Izuku simply used his other pen to repeat the block.

For the first time, Izuku and Tomura were on equal footing in a fight. Izuku may not be able to do anything to attack, but neither could Tomura. He'd forced a deadlock.

Tomura grit his teeth. "You quirkless brat…"

"I'm not a brat anymore," Izuku replied.

A scratchy voice interrupted from the TV. "Izuku Midoriya, you know that Tomura Shigaraki is meant to be the leader of the League of Villains. It's your duty to do as he asks."

"So, Sensei finally decides to intercede." Izuku said with a slight laugh. "Always happy to remind me where my place is, but never willing to correct Tomura's behaviour."

"Izuku, if you continue to rebel like this, you'll never recieve a quirk of your own." All For One reminded him.

That made Izuku stop and think. Tomura took this opportunity to get out of Izuku's block, but didn't try to attack again. Clearly he thought Izuku had been cowed by All For One.

In reality, Izuku had been anything but cowed. Hearing All For One's constant offer once again made him think about his reasons for staying. At first, it was because he had no choice. All For One was an all-powerful god-villain, and a quirless kid couldn't do anything but follow him. As time went on, All For One continued to remind Izuku that he had the power to give Izuku a quirk, but that he wouldn't do it until Izuku had fulfilled some arbitrary requirement.

But now, Izuku knew better. _All For One isn't all-powerful. He isn't even nearby. I'm not a kid anymore, and have proven himself more than capable of doing my own thing._

And he finally realized that he'd never do enough to deserve a quirk in All For One's eyes.

Izuku grit his teeth. "Screw that! I don't need a quirk. I've always wanted one, but after years of learning to fight with weapons and managing your criminal empire, I don't need it. I don't need you. And I definitely don't need to continue living in Tomura's shadow."

Izuku grabbed his notebook and started walking out the door. "I'm going to make my own path. It may not be 'good' or 'righteous' by society's standards, but at least it will be my own choice."

And so, Izuku walked out the door without even looking back. He half expected to see a black portal blocking his way, but for some reason nobody - not even Kurogiri - made any effort to stop him.

Once Izuku was out of that bar, his thoughts cleared and he was able to think rationally. He didn't have anything except for two pens, a notebook, and the clothes off his back. He may have made a show of leaving on the spot, but he really should have grabbed some of his supplies. Especially his gun and knife.

Izuku also realized that he was being followed.

He turned around. "If you're here to make me come back, you can forget it."

Dabi, one of the two who were following him, said, "Fuck no. I never liked handjob."

Toga, Izuku's other shadow, just giggled. "Silly Izuku! Can't you tell we want to go with you?"

Izuku looked at them in confusion. "Go with me? But - I mean - Honestly, I don't have a plan for what to do now."

Dabi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well your improv is probably a lot better than whatever Shigaraki comes up with. I may not have done anything with him yet, but I can already tell that."

"Izukun, Dabi and I joined the league because we wanted to follow Stainy's ideology." Toga explained. "We heard from Uraraka that Stain liked you but didn't get along with Shigy. So, it makes that we should stick by you!"

Izuku blinked. What Toga was saying made sense. He'd always felt like Shigaraki was a fraud for mooching off Stain's reputation when he didn't believe in the man's ideals. Stain had wanted to fix society and their heroes. Shigaraki just wanted to destroy everything.

Izuku would much rather fix society than just mindly destroy it.

"Are you sure about this?" Izuku asked them. "I'm not trying to dissuade you, but right now we don't have any resources. There's only three of us, and I don't even have my usual weapons."

Toga looked up and smiled. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Izuku turned around. It was Uraraka, a few feet above his head, slowly floating down to the ground, holding several backpacks filled to the brim.

"Hey Deku!" Uraraka said, smiling at Izuku.

"Uraraka!" Izuku gasped. "Wha-What are you doing here?"

"Obviously, I came to join you along with Toga and Dabi," she explained as she touched down. "By the way, Spinner is coming too. He's just grabbing some final things before crawling down the walls."

"Bu-But what about your debt to Sensei? Your mom?" Izuku asked.

"Honestly, I've already done plenty for All For One." Uraraka shrugged. "I gave up my future as a hero or ordinary citizen and have been working for him for about a year now. I told my mom to go into hiding as soon as I started working as a villain, so he won't be able to touch her. I want to choose from now on, and I chose you Deku."

Izuku could feel happy tears welling up in his eyes. "You guys…"

"Oh, and I grabbed as much of your stuff as I could. Same for Dabi and Toga." Uraraka held out the backpacks for each of them to take. "I couldn't get your notebooks, but I did get your laptop and weapons."

Izuku checked in his backpack. It was better than he'd hoped. Not only did Uraraka get his laptop and knife, but she got his gun and two boxes of bullets. The notebooks weren't a big deal; he knew them by heart.

"Yay! Bestie got my blood-sucking machine!" Toga cheered, tackling Uraraka with a hug.

Dabi didn't comment on the contents of his backpack, but he didn't really have much gear.

Spinner came crawling along the wall towards them. "Do you mind if I join?"

"Spinner!" Izuku said. "Of course, you're welcome."

Once he was close enough to the ground, Spinner jumped down from the wall and handed a piece of paper to Izuku. "I don't know what this is or if it's a trap, but Kurogiri told me to give this to you before he let me leave."

Izuku frowned as he took the paper. Kurogiri was fiercely loyal to All For One. He may have given Izuku some of his attention, but Izuku was sure he'd always choose Tomura over Izuku. Still, he read the writing on the paper.

_There's an empty warehouse at the following address. The Master doesn't use it anymore because he has no business in that area, but it may be a suitable place to stay until you get your feet on the ground. The key is hidden in the bushes next to the front door_.

Underneath it was an address near Musutafu.

Izuku smirked. It wasn't much, but it was something he could start with. If he got more successful he'd probably try to find another hideout, but at least now they had a place to stay.

"Come on guys. We have work to do."


	7. Chapter 7: Izuku's Feud with the Yakuza

**i posted this late because I was traveling... Also didn't give it as good of an edit as I would like for the same reason. It's a long chapter I had a lot of difficulty writing, but I'll welcome constructive criticism.**

* * *

t all started with what was supposed to be an easy robbery.

Izuku had noticed a certain casino with an unusual security system. He'd suspected that it had some less-than-legal activities going on behind closed doors, but didn't consider the implications of that until it was too late.

A couple of days before they planned to rob the casino, Toga had stealthily extracted blood from a random businessman. It was just a small syringe, small enough that the target wouldn't notice what the girl who bumped into him was doing, but large enough to get the blood Toga would need for 2 hours of transformation.

Now, Toga was walking towards the seedy casino disguised as the businessman, pretending that she was stressed and wanted to gamble.

"Just got my paycheck, now all I need is to play the odds and I'll get enough to retire!" She gruffly told the man in line behind her.

"I thought I told her to stay inconspicuous," Izuku said even though there was no way for Toga to hear him. "We don't want them to notice anything is different, and we definitely don't want them paying attention to her."

"She'll be fine," Uraraka insisted. "Toga's used to this kind of stuff."

"I know, I know." Izuku said. "Just remind me to get her some inconspicuous communication device for her to wear so I can give her instructions when she's on missions like this."

Dabi raised his eyebrows. "You mean like a cell phone? We're already using that."

He was right. The audio Izuku was currently hearing came from Toga's phone, which she had called Izuku with before they started. Izuku's phone was currently on mute.

"I mean like an earpiece," Izuku explained. "I may make one hidden as an earring, but I'd prefer one that was either invisible or flesh-colored."

Around that time, Toga wandered into the casino and started to scope out the place. Izuku had told her to find the security room, where all the security and bank information would be. There wasn't a door directly in the back, but there was a side door that wasn't as well decorated as the other doors, so she decided to start with that one.

The door opened to stairs leading down. Toga followed the stairs to the bottom, where she saw a crowd of people surrounding a large metal cage. She couldn't see what was going on, but there were a lot of growling sounds. To the side, she saw several dogs packed into too-small cages, covered in matted fur, flees, and blood.

_Poor puppies. They look so cute covered in blood, but they also look miserable_, Toga thought. _I'll ask Izuku if I could release them as a distraction._

On the other side of the room, she saw another door. None of the patrons where passing through it, but she did see a security guard use a keycard to open it.

_Bingo_.

Near a side wall, Toga found a broom closet. She grabbed one of the brooms and went to linger in the shadows on one side. After a few minutes, another security guard came her way.

As soon as he'd passed her, Toga hit him on the head with the broom handle. Swiftly, she caught the unconscious guard and dragged him into the broom closet, shutting the door behind her.

It was a cramped, dark space, but at least it was private.

She pulled out her phone to give Izuku and update. "I've knocked out one of the security guards. I'll take some of his blood and his security card, which should let me in the back room."

On his end, Izuku turned off mute. "Good job. Find some way to clear out the room, then put us on speaker."

"I will," She confirmed.

Toga emptied the contents of her fake-clothes pockets, including a trusty pocket knife. She used the knife to make a small cut in the guard's arm. Several drops of blood decorated the cut, and she was quick to lap them up.

A few moments later, Toga left the broom closet, now looking like a security guard in this place. She easily slipped the security card in the slot and opened the door to a room filled with computers.

Two other security guards were watching monitors in the room. Well, no big deal.

Toga pretended to be relieved. "I'm so glad I found you guys! The boss is upstairs, he wants to speak to you."

The two others looked up with wide eyes. "Overhall is here?" one asked.

Toga had no idea who that was, but nodded anyway.

The other security guard stood up. "Come on Kaname, I'll show you to the private rooms. I only hope that he's in a forgiving mood."

Once the two had left the room, Toga sat down at one of the monitors and pulled out her phone.

"Okay Izuku, you're on speaker," she said after putting it on speaker.

"Good. Put the flashdrive I gave you in any of the desktops. If there are multiple computers there, you may have to try several, but I'll be able to check each of them individually."

Toga took the flashdrive out and did as she was asked. Shortly afterwards, the mouse on her monitor started moving on its own, bypassing passwords and opening programs all over the place.

_Izuku's tech skills are really great_, Toga thought.

Eventually, Izuku spoke through the phone once again. "Okay, I've found the accounts. Let me just transfer the money, shouldn't take more than a minute. By the way, do you know anything about these "kennels" that have cameras?"

"Oh, that must be for the doggies being kept here. That reminds me, can I try to free them as a distraction before I get away?"

"Did you say that there are dogs being kept there?" Uraraka asked. "Why would they…"

"They were all covered in blood, but looked really miserable. Can I, Izuku?" Toga asked again.

"Dogfighting," Izuku said. He sounded like he was seething, something she'd only seen him do around Shigaraki before. "That's what they're doing behind closed doors. Don't worry Toga, we'll help the dogs escape. I think I can unlock their cages from here."

"Yay!" Toga said. She spun around in her chair, which led to her eyes catching something on the floor in the corner of the room. "Hey guys? I think I found a safe."

"What kind of safe is it?" Izuku asked.

Toga walked over to the safe and kneeled down. "Just a standard turning dial. Should I try to open it?"

"Leave it. We don't know the combination, and I don't want you to make noise trying to break it."

Toga looked at a little slip of yellow she saw on the side of the safe. "There's a sticky note here with the number 5, 15, 25 on it."

"...In that case, go ahead and try it."

Toga tried it. The safe opened.

"Well, there's a few stacks of cash in here, as well as a gun with amo. Want me to take it all?"

"Wow, yeah, please do."

Toga grabbed an empty briefcase from the floor and started shoving the money in it. "You got it, Izuku."

"Good. Okay, the money has finished transferring. I'm going to open the kennels in a moment. Get the flashdrive, get out quickly, and take the long way to our hideout. Got it?"

Toga closed the briefcase, stood up, and grabbed her phone. "Got it."

Outside the door, she could hear the clang of metal, followed by loud barks and screams. She pulled out the flashdrive and calmly power-walked out of the casino. When she passed the broom closet, she stealthily dropped the access card so her victim could find it later.

She got away scot-free, or so they thought.

The next day, Izuku pulled out the new gun and ammo Toga had brought back. He wanted to sit on their new funds for a couple of days, but Toga had demanded a present for completing the job, so he gave her some cash to go shopping. Spinner had decided to join her and get some fresh air. Dabi had gone out to find another place they could make their hideout, since Izuku didn't want to stay in someplace that All For One technically owned any longer than necessary. The only people still in the hideout were Uraraka and Izuku.

Izuku studied the gun. It was very similar to what he was used to: semi-automatic pistol with 12 in the clip and 1 in the chamber. The bullet size wasn't the 9mm he used with his usual gun, so he'd have to keep a couple on hand to compare when he restocked. Still, there were enough in the box that once he'd loaded the clip half the box was still left.

He pushed the clip in and made sure the safety was on before walking away with the gun. "Uraraka, I'm going to shoot in the basement," he shouted to the only other person in the house.

Uraraka looked up from the computer she'd been watching videos on. "Oh, okay. Want me to come with you?"

Izuku shook his head. "It'll be loud, and all I'm doing is shooting at tin cans. Not the most interesting training, to be honest."

Uraraka shrugged. "If you say so."

Izuku descended the steps to the basement. He wasn't sure why this particular warehouse had a basement, especially one this big, but he was grateful for it. The basement stretched out far beyond the boundaries of the building and probably even several blocks, giving Izuku a long concrete tunnel that suited him just fine as a shooting gallery.

He'd already set up makeshift targets from old tin cans about 10 feet from the entrance, so all he had to do was aim and shoot.

_Bang!_

The first bullet missed, significantly to the right of the target. Izuku was about to shoot another round, but he noticed some discoloration on the ground where the bullet hit.

He walked up to the target. The trajectory of the bullet was marked by a deep read, similar to blood. The bullet had traveled quite a distance, but it wasn't hard for Izuku to find it on the ground several feet from the target. The bullet had split along the sides and squished on impact, opening up like a metallic flower.

Along the splits, Izuku found a thick, red liquid.

_It it is blood, Toga will be able to tell._

Izuku decided to store the bullet in a plastic bag so Toga could look at it later. He was walking up the stairs to store it when he heard a loud noise from upstairs.

Izuku ran up to see what was going on.

Two men were standing in the entranceway, having thrown the front door off its hinges. They were both wearing plague masks. One was a large wall of muscles with long white hair. The other had black hair, but didn't look particularly imposing. Izuku knew enough about the world of villains to know the smaller man was probably the greater threat, especially with his air of superiority.

Uraraka was standing in front of the unexpected guests. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "Who do you think you are?"

The smaller man spoke first. "I am Overhaul, the leader of the Eight Precepts of Death."

Izuku had heard that name before and laughed. "The Yakuza? Come on, you don't seriously think anyone is scared of you gangsters anymore!"

Overhaul's eyes jumped to Izuku and narrowed. "You're going to regret that. We originally came for retribution and to return the items you stole from our casino, but now you've insulted our honor."

Izuku only rolled his eyes and laughed harder. "You really need to increase your security there, by the way. A sticky note with the lock combination right next to the safe? Really?"

Overhaul turned to his companion. "Kendo, teach him a lesson."

Kendo, the larger man, nodded. "Sure thing, boss."

Kendo took off running towards Izuku, but he only took a couple of steps before Uraraka flew towards him and knocked him back. Her air-powered jet shoes shot both her and Kendo into the opposite wall.

Izuku was glad he'd gotten her into the habit of wearing her support equipment all the time, even when resting.

A single hand hold followed by throwing the large man into the air ensured that Uraraka had the upper hand in the fight. It was hard for people with physical quirks to attack with zero gravity.

"Tck," Overhaul turned to Izuku again. "I'll just do it myself then." He then took off running towards Izuku.

_Shit_, Izuku realized. _I have no idea what their quirks are._

He turned and led his attacker to the other side of the room. Overhaul followed, gradually gaining distance. Considering how much Izuku had trained this was rather impressive, but not impressive enough to be his quirk.

When Overhaul was a few seconds from touching Izuku, he snagged Toga's favorite pillow from a nearby bed and blocked Overhaul's touch with it.

The pillow scattered into a million fragments, feathers and threads flying everywhere and hindering both fighter's views. Izuku took the opportunity to jump on top of a table and climb up a shelf just out of Overhaul's reach.

It's a good thing he did, since a few seconds later the pillow miracuously came together again.

"Ah, so that's how your quirk works," Izuku said. "You're able to deconstruct and reconstruct things you touch, correct?"

Overhaul glared at Izuku. "Yes, but you should know that's not my only trick."

Quick as a flash, Overhaul pulled a gun out of his jacket and fired at Uraraka. Right after impact, she fell.

"URARAKA!"

"Don't worry, she should recover with time." Overhaul said.

Izuku didn't care. He'd forgotten until now, but he was still holding the new gun. Without thinking, he fired it at Overhaul.

It missed the heart by a wide margin, but still hit the Yakuza boss's side.

Overhaul winced in pain, but surged forward to touch the shelf Izuku was standing on.

Nothing happened.

Overhaul raised his eyebrows. "Oh? So you're already using those bullets?"

Izuku had no idea what he was talking about, but pretended he did and said, "Yes. They're very useful."

Overhaul gave Izuku a calculating gaze.

"Oi! What happened here? Get away from my friends!"

A flash of blue flames shot across the room and forced Overhaul to back away.

Dabi was standing in the destroyed entranceway, looking as effortlessly casual as usual.

Overhaul's eyes shifted between Izuku, Uraraka (who had started to stand up again), Dabi, and Kendo. He must have realized he'd lost the advantage.

"Kendo, we're leaving."

"But Boss, I wanted to rough them up more!" Kendo said.

"You'll get another chance," Overhaul said, "But for now, we have more important things to do."

Izuku couldn't resist the urge to snort.

Overhaul gave him one last look. "You're getting away with it now, but don't you dare consider stealing from the Eight Precepts of Death again. You will regret it."

He then turned and led Kendo out the door, brushing shoulders with Dabi on the way out.

Once they were out of sight, Izuku climbed down from the shelf.

"I'm gone for a few hours and you guys manage to get in a fight," Dabi said. "Seriously, who were those thugs?"

"The Eight Precepts of Death, the Yakuza organization that owned the casino from yesterday," Izuku explained.

Dabi sighed. "Only you could accidentally piss off he Yakuza. I thought those organizations had lost power with the age of quirks?"

"You and me both," Izuku walked over where Uraraka was clutching her calf. "How bad is it?"

"Not bad, at least, I think." Uraraka said, biting her lip "It's just a graze, but something still feels off…" She leaned down and touched her shoes. "My quirk… It's not getting lighter. I think my quirk stopped working!"

Izuku frowned. That was worrying, but might explain why Overhaul wasn't able to finish the job after Izuku shot him. If the bullets these Yakuza used were the same as the ones Toga picked up yesterday, then Overhaul must have lost his quirk when Izuku shot him. The fact that Overhaul didn't seem too worried about this meant that Uraraka was probably going to be okay eventually.

"Come on, let's get that bandaged up." Izuku lead her over to the couch. "Dabi, did you find a new place?"

"Yeah, there's an old house for sale about 10 minutes from here. It's not in the best shape, but should only cost us about half of what we got from the casino job," Dabi explained. "I guess you want to move sooner rather than later?"

"Yes. I'll move the money through a couple of dummy accounts to make sure they can't trace it, but we should be able to buy the new place by this evening." Izuku said, pulling out some bandages to wrap up Uraraka's leg.

"Well, you should make sure they can't track us there with whatever they used to find us here," Dabi said. He noticed the box of bullets on the table. "Hey, are those from yesterday?"

Izuku looked at what Dabi was talking about. "Yes. I was trying out the gun this morning, but I'm starting to think there's something special about those bullets."

Dabi emptied the box onto the table. Bullets rolled around the table and fell on the floor, but Dabi was only interested in the empty box.

He shoved the empty bullet box under Izuku's nose. "Doesn't that look like an electronic tracker?"

A small red light was blinking at the bottom of the box. There wasn't much encasing it, but it should be enough for a little circuitry.

Izuku scowled. "You're right. Do me a favor and destroy it?"

A puff of blue flames later and it was done.

Izuku had planned a while ago on meeting with a local support gear supplier to refill Uraraka's air canisters, order more syringes for Toga, and get more bullets for himself. However, the morning after they moved hideouts he didn't start the meeting with any of those requests.

Instead, he slapped a wad of cash on the table. "I'll give you all this right now if you can tell me the location of the Eight Precepts of Death's headquarters.

The supplier raised an eyebrow, but was more than happy to provide that information.

"You know, all this sneaking around is more of Toga's thing," Dagi said. "Why didn't we bring her?"

"She wanted to look after Uraraka," Izuku reminded him. "Besides, we shouldn't need her quirk for this."

About a week after the confrontation with Overhaul in the old warehouse, Uraraka had gotten her quirk back but still wasn't in fighting shape. Izuku would never say how relieved he was when she made her blanket float by accident, but getting shot in the leg would put her out of condition for a while longer. Toga had felt so guilty for not checking for trackers when she brought stuff home, so she'd gone above and beyond to make Uraraka's recovery as comfortable as possible.

Izuku, though, had thrown himself into getting revenge on the Eight Precepts of Death and Overhaul. A few innocent questions to the local small-time villains and Izuku had gathered plenty of information on both the major members and their business practices. Apparently they were trying to dominate the underground again using drugs that enhanced and removed quirks, and held a monopoly on both quirk enhancers and the quirk-erasing bullets.

To be honest, it kind of reminded Izuku of how All For One had maintained a stranglehold on villain society for so many years by taking and giving quirks as he saw fit. Izuku knew how much power that could potentially bring, and wanted to make sure the Yakuza couldn't keep it.

Or, better yet, he wanted to take it for himself.

That was why Dabi, Spinner, and Izuku were here now, sneaking into the Eight Precepts of Death's compound. Toga had given all three of them training on hiding their presence, so they should be able to slip in undetected and destroy the supply of drugs and special bullets. Hopefully they'd get some critical manufacturing equipment as well. Even better, Izuku was hoping to take pictures of their bullet-making process so he could reverse-engineer it.

Spinner, who had been crawling on the ceiling until now, dropped down in front of Izuku and Dabi. "There's a door to the left," he whispered.

Izuku nodded. "Let's check it out."

Just around the corner where spinner had said, Izuku found a closed door. It wasn't locked. He opened it, but what he saw made him stop in his tracks.

It was a little girl's room. Izuku had expected to find a stockpile of weapons, drugs, or the labs they'd use to make those things. Instead, he saw a rainbow painting, dolls strewn all over the floor, and a pink bed.

On the bed, a little girl with a horn looked at Izuku with fear in her eyes.

"A-are you… Is he…" The girl was trembling, but tried to voice her question. "Does he need to unmake and remake me again?"

_Unmake and remake?_ Izuku wondered. _That sounds like Overhaul's quirk..._

Suddenly, what she was saying clicked in Izuku's mind.

"Dabi, Spinner, go on ahead. Take pictures of anything you think I'd be interested in, and destroy any stockpiles you can find." He said.

Izuku heard the two of them leave, but didn't take his eyes off the girl. He walked slowly towards her, holding out his hand.

"Don't worry, I'm not with Overhaul," he said. "My name's Izuku, what's yours?"

The girl looked at his hand wearily and didn't move. Eventually, her quiet voice said, "I'm Eri."

Izuku gave her a comforting smile. "Hello Eri. Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

Eri did not respond, so Izuku went ahead and sat on the bed.

"Does Overhaul unmake and remake you a lot?" he asked.

Eri looked down at her hands, but eventually nodded.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure it must be painful." Izuku reached a comforting hand out and gave her a one-armed hug.

Surprisingly, Eri didn't flinch. She actually started to lean into his arm some more.

"Do you want to leave here?"

Eri looked up at Izuku in surprise. "I.. Can I leave?"

Izuku gave her a comforting smile. "If you want, I can take you away from here. There's already five people in one house so it might not be as comfortable as you're used to, but at least Overhaul won't hurt you anymore."

Eri clutched his hand, holding onto it with more strength than he thought her small body could muster. Her eyes were wide with hope. "Please, please, please! I don't want to be unmade anymore!" She was on the edge of sobbing.

Izuku held her close, shushing her. Looking at Eri, he couldn't help but remember when he was young and All For One had just taken him in. Did he tremble in fear as much as Eri?

No, he probably hadn't. All For One hadn't been actively torturing him.

Izuku tightened her arms around Eri and lifted her off the bed. She was so light, Izuku suspected she'd been malnourished.

"Try to be quiet," he whispered. "I don't want anyone to notice what I'm doing."

Eri nodded and put a finger to her lips, the universal symbol for "quiet."

And so, Izuku walked out of the Eight Precepts of Death's facility with a little girl in tow, leaving Dabi and Spinner to destroy the drugs and bullets.

For some reason, they weren't able to find the process to make quirk-destroying bullets.

"Aw, aren't you the cutest thing!" Uraraka squealed at the sight of Eri.

Dabi, on the other hand, gave Izuku a hard look. "Izuku, why did you have to take her home?"

Izuku rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Aw, Dabi, you're just jealous that she's so cute!" Toga said.

"Umm…" Eri fidgeted with her nightgown. "I'm sorry, I don't want to be a burden…"

"No, no, no you're not a burden!" Uraraka said. "Dabi's just being a stick in the mud. By the way, it doesn't look like Izuku brought any of your clothes with you. Would you like to get some new clothes?"

Eri fiddled with her nightgown some more. "If you want."

"Hm… you can't go to the store in that nightgown…" Toga considered. "Oh, I've got it! Eri, come with me real quick."

Toga led the tiny girl up the stairs to the bedrooms.

Once the girl was out of earshot, Izuku turned to Dabi. "Overhaul has been using his quirk on her. Regularly destroying her body and putting it back together. I couldn't leave here there."

"I see," Dabi suddenly turned away from Izuku. "Well, there's also the fact that she's a kid growing up in the 'care' of a villain organization…"

"Dabi!" Uraraka hissed.

Izuku couldn't figure out what they were implying, but before he could ask Toga returned with Eri.

"Ta-da!" Toga said, showing off Eri dressed in a black t-shirt that was so much bigger than her it worked like a dress.

Izuku recognized the design. "Isn't that my shirt?"

"Well, you're not using it right now," Uraraka said. "Besides, it looks so much better than that ratty nightgown."

Eri shuffled over to Uraraka, apparently to show off her clothes. Something made her trip and hit Urarak's hurt leg.

"Ugh!" Uraraka grunted in pain from the impact.

Eri immediately jumped back. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Oh, no, it's fine sweety," Uraraka assured her, sitting up from the couch. "It was an accident, after all…"

Uraraka froze. Something was different. She unwrapped the bandages around her leg. The wound was completely gone.

Somehow, Eri's bump had healed her.

"Wow Eri! You have a healing quirk?" Toga asked.

"N-no, that's not it." Eri was trembling again. "It's dangerous. I 'rewind' people, and it can make people completely disappear by accident…"

"Well, that just means you need to learn to control it," Uraraka said.

Eri was close to tears now. "But I can't control it. The only person who can control it is Overhaul, when he uses me to cleanse the world of quirks…"

Izuku's breath caught. _Is she saying…?_

Swiftly, Izuku kneeled down so he was eye level with her. "Eri, your quirk is your power, nobody else's. Overhaul won't touch you again, and I know you'll figure out how to control it with time."

"But… But what if I hurt someone?" Eri asked.

"We'll be careful, and I'll help you get a handle on it. Okay?" Izuku said, patting her on the head.

Eri still looked concerned, but didn't protest.

"Hey Uraraka, since you're doing better, how about you take Eri and Toga shopping? She needs clothes, after all." Izuku said.

"Right! That's a wonderful idea," Uraraka said, bolting up off the couch. "Come on you two!"

"Yay! It's a girls-only outing!" Toga cheered, taking Eri's hand and following Uraraka out the door.

With the girls gone, Dabi and Spinner went to their rooms to catch up on sleep. Izuku though, grabbed a particular gun and the corresponding bullets and walked down to the old hideout where his shooting gallery was still set up.

One by one, Izuku emptied clip after clip of the quirk-erasing bullets. They destroyed the cans and stained the whole place red, but Izuku just kept shooting until the last bullet made from a little girl's suffering had been spent.

This was his redemption.

The next day, the Mustafu police force received an anonymous tip about the source of illegal quirk enhancing and erasing drugs. They forwarded this information to the Nighteye agency, where All Might's successor was still interning. This prompted a raid on the Eight Precepts of Death's facility, where the hero LeMillion defeated the villain Overhaul.

The public at large didn't think too much of this, but Mirio and Sir Nighteye both thought it was too convenient, especially since none of the Yakuza and tried to use their quirk-erasing bullets. They asked to interrogate Overhaul about this, and the police granted their request.

"Someone took the child. My guess is that green-haired kid with a smart mouth, but I can't say for sure," Overhaul said in response to questioning.

"The child?" Mirio asked.

"What green-haired kid?" Nighteye asked instead.

Overhaul scratched the side of his face. "The girl is none of your concern, but if you must know she's the Boss's granddaughter. Now for the green-haired kid, he's apparently the leader of a new small-time group of villains. I don't know his name, and I wouldn't have even concerned myself with him if he hadn't stolen some quirk-erasing bullets from me. He didn't even seem to realize what he'd done, but still made himself a nuisance."

"You still haven't explained what this has to do with your lack of resources," Nighteye pressed.

Mirio want to ask about the girl again, but let his mentor take the lead.

"A few days ago someone broke into our facility and destroyed our entire stash of bullets and drugs. They burned them and scattered the ashes so even I couldn't reonstruct them. They also took the only source I had for the quirk-erasing bullets. I investigated, and found out that some green-haired boy had been asking about our operations. His description matched someone I'd recently caught stealing from our legitimate businesses, so I planned to track him and his gang down, but you showed up first."

"You say this boys took your source for the quirk-erasing bullets. Is it possible he'll try to create his own?" Nighteye asked.

"I doubt it. But if he does, well, that's your problem isn't it?" Overhaul responded.

"Would you be willing to tell us what you know about the green-haired boy and his gang?" Mirio asked, "If nothing else, so we can save the girl."

Overhaul gave Mirio a calculating stare for a few moments. "I've only seen three of them. I don't know what the green-haired boy's quirk is, but he is skilled with a pistol and has a deep understanding of the underworld and how it works. He's got this brunette girl in his group, and her quirk somehow lets her and the people she's fighting float. The last one I only saw a glimpse of, but his body was covered in burn scars that may have been because by his blue-flame quirk. Is that good enough for you?"

"It's a decent start," Nighteye said. "Mirio, let's go."

As they walked through the walls of Tartarus, Mirio turned to Nighteye. "Did you get enough information?"

"Not even close. Overhaul is definitely hiding something," Nighteye pulled out his phone and started texting his sidekicks. "There's a good chance we'll learn more if we can find that green-haired kid and figure out if he really did destroy the stash and steal the source of those bullets."

"And the girl?" Mirio asked.

"Again, we need to find the green-haired kid before we can judge." Nighteye suddenly stopped, a look of shock on his face. "Mirio, did you notice how Overhaul started talking about the girl but quickly changed to talking about the source of the bullets?"

Mirio's heart sunk. "You think that's because they're the same thing?"

Nighteye started walking faster. "I don't know for sure, but we have to find that green-haired boy."

Unfortunately, the Nighteye Agency's investigation on this matter proved fruitless for about a month. The most they got were a few rumors about a kid collecting support gear, but they never led anywhere.

That is, until a green-haired boy introduced himself and his friends to the world by attacking Endeavour.


	8. Chapter 8: A Quirk of Luck

"Izuku, the master wants to speak to you," Kurogiri said one day, less than a week after the day Izuku's father died.

The day he started living with these villains.

Izuku was shaking.

"D-do I have to?" He whispered, looking at Kurogiri pleadingly.

"Would you stop whining, brat?" Tomura complained. "Can I go see Sensei instead?"

"I'm sorry Shigaraki, but the master specifically asked to see Izuku alone," Kurogiri explained. "I believe it's related to what was said yesterday evening."

Izuku continued to tremble. What happened yesterday had started as the usual argument between himself and Tomura, but evolved into something more.

"_Stop that pitiful crying already!" Tomura screamed._

"_No! I hate you!" Izuku cried. "I hate this place! I hate all of you! You're nothing but villains!"_

_Tomura growled and reached out to touch Izuku, but he was too quick and ran to the other side of the room, stopping only when he was in the hallway._

"_Come back here you brat!" Tomura shrieked._

"_No! I'm getting out of here! A hero will save me!" Izuku said. "All Might will come and he'll defeat All For One!"_

"Oooh, you're gonna get it!" Tomura taunted, undoubtedly remembering the same incident.

"Please, please don't make me go," Izuku whimpered.

Kurogiri remained impassive. "It would be best if you get this over with."

Izuku nodded. Kurogiri was right, he wasn't going to get out of this situation any time soon. And so, he walked through the portal obediently, but distraught.

All For One was waiting for Izuku.

"Thank you, Kurogiri. You may go now," he said.

Izuku was trembling even more. Kurogiri may still be a villain, but he was a lot nicer than All For One and Izuku found comfort in his presence. But Kurogiri was loyal to his master, and disappeared through a portal of his own, leaving Izuku alone with the man he hated most in the world.

All For One watched him with a calculating gaze. "Do you understand why I asked to see you, Izuku?"

"B-Because I said you and everyone else were villains?" Izuku asked.

"Partially, but no. I do not find that term offensive."

Izuku thought back his argument last night. "Because I said a hero was going to save me?"

"Yes," All For One nodded. "Specifically, I heard you said All Might would be able to defeat me."

Izuku took a deep breath and looked All For One in the eyes. "All Might is the greatest hero to ever live. If anyone can defeat you, he can."

"I assume you're an All Might fan?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, do you know what his quirk is?"

Izuku thought back to every scrap of information he'd compiled on All Might. "I don't know what it's called, but it's definitely some kind of strength enhancer or something similar."

"What if I told you the man you know as All Might was almost certainly born without a quirk?"

Izuku gasped. "You mean - like me?"

"Somewhat. However, he met someone later in life who was able to give him a quirk of his own."

Izuku's chest turned to ice. _Is he saying…?_

"It wasn't me," All For One explained, seemingly reading Izuku's mind. "But the quirk does originally come from me. Many years ago I gave my brother a stockpiling quirk out of kindness, but he found out he had the ability to pass on quirks to other people. He betrayed me and gave the quirk to someone else. You see, the stockpiling quirk gains power with each new wielder, so they passed it from person to person for the purpose of cultivating that power."

"Wha-Why did they do that?" Izuku asked. The moment he said it, the answer became clear to him.

"In order to defeat me, Izuku," All For One confirmed. "But they haven't succeeded yet. By my estimates, All Might is the eighth user of this power and I am sure he won't fare any better than his predecessor, who died by my hand."

Izuku's vision blurred. He couldn't stop the tears.

All For One approached him. "Izuku, you need to give up this childish dream. All Might is nothing but a fraud who got lucky with a borrowed quirk, and neither he nor any other hero is going to save you. You need to save yourself, and can only do that by behaving and helping me and Tomura Shigaraki. Only then will earn a quirk of your own."

Izuku rubbed his tears away. He couldn't afford to be this weak, especially around All For One.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you Izuku?"

"Yes sir."

"Good," All For One clasped Izuku's shoulder. "I have great expectations for you, Izuku. Shigaraki has shown me some of your lessons, so I know you're smart. Use that intelligence to impress me and you won't have to rely on a lucky encounter like All Might did."

Izuku nodded. His whole world view may be shattered now, but he schooled his face to hide his disappointment.

_All Might won't be able to save me._


	9. Chapter 9: The Breaking Point

"Hey Izuku! I need a player 2!" Tomura shouted across the house.

"I'm busy! Play by yourself!" Izuku shouted back, not even looking up from his computer.

Despite having already turned 20, Tomura had barely matured at all since Izuku first met him. He still obsessed over games, bossed Izuku around, and threw tantrums when things don't go his way. It was tiring to deal with, but after all these years Izuku had gotten used to it.

Tomura stomped over to Izuku's room. "What are you so 'busy' with? You better not be playing World of Wizards without me."

Izuku sighed. "If you must know, I'm trying to hack into the UA student database."

"Oh?" Tomura looked impressed. "I didn't realize you knew how to do that."

"I learned some tricks online, but I haven't tried hacking into anything but a few online stores. That's how I got you those new controllers, by the way," Izuku said.

"Does this mean you're finally planning our attack on the school?" Tomura had been asking for assistance in attacking UA for nearly 5 years now. Luckily Kurogiri backed up Izuku's protests that it was more trouble than it could possibly be worth, or Tomura would have gotten himself and Izuku locked up years ago.

"No, but if I get in I may gather some security information to prove to you why it's NOT a good idea," Izuku said.

"Damn," Tomura pouted, but recognized the Izuku wouldn't budge on this issue. "So, why are you hacking into the UA school database?"

"I'm trying to get information on the students, particularly in the hero course," Izuku explained. "The sports festival is useful, but only 16 students each year are able to participate in the fight tournament and truly shine. Pretty much everybody who graduates from UA becomes a successful hero, so it's a good idea to get what we can from them."

"I see. Is there any particular reason you're doing this right now though? You could have done this while I was meeting with new recruits."

"It's the week entrance exam results are sent out. All those new students being added, teachers checking who is in their classes, secretaries or whoever compiling acceptance and rejection letters. A lot will be going on, so security should be significantly more lax… Ah-ha! I'm in!"

Izuku mentally congratulated himself and started scrolling through the info he could get to. The first thing he saw was a student registry, broken down by year and class. He decided to start with 1-A, the first on the list.

The names were mostly meaningless to Izuku, but he did click on each name to find out the quirks and connect them to a face. As usual, the hero course was filled with impressive quirks. Navel Laser, Acid, Frog… Oh, there's another Iida boy, he must be Ingenium's little brother…

The 17th name made Izuku freeze. He clicked on it, and the face staring back at him was so familiar despite not having seen it for eight years.

Katsuki Bakugo.

"_Kachan!"_

"_Go away, Deku. Nobody wants to play with a useless nerd."_

"_But Kachan…"_

_Bakugo turned around and pushed Izuku to the ground. "Give it up! You're never going to be a hero without a quirk. I'm going to be the greatest hero ever, better than even All Might, and you'll never be able to do anything!"_

_Izuku could feel the tear tracks staining his cheeks. "But Kachan, you won't be a good hero if keep acting like a bully."_

Izuku refreshed the page, just to make sure there wasn't a mistake. No, Katsuki Bakugo was still listed as number 17 in the new class 1-A at UA.

_Kachan is a bully. Why does he get to be a hero while I'm stuck in the role of a villain?_

Something in Izuku snapped.

The world wasn't fair. Izuku had figured that out a long time ago, but some part of him held out hope that it still maintained some fairness outside the world of villains. But here it was, the best hero school in the country, letting a bully into their hero course. How could he possibly be a hero? If Kachan was able to call himself a hero, then that name had truly lost all meaning.

For the first time in his life, Izuku understood Tomura's hatred of hero society.

"Hey! You've been staring at the same page for nearly a minute," Tomura said, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Izuku turned his eyes from the computer screen and looked at Tomura with new eyes. Suddenly, his face twisted into a manic grin.

A villainous grin.

"Tomura, are you still interested in attacking UA? I'd be happy to help you plan for it."


	10. Chapter 10: A New Meaning for Deku

**Finally Uraraka arrives! I've been getting questions about how she ended up a villain for a while now, and this should answer most of your questions. Sorry UrarakaXIzuku haters, but there's some of that slipped in here.**

**Izuku is age 14 here, btw.**

* * *

This wasn't how Ochaco Uraraka's life was supposed to go. Until a few months ago she was on track to her ideal life: get into a good hero school, graduate and become a pro, then earn enough money to make her parents' lives easier.

That future disappeared the day her father died.

His company was conducting repairs on a large l skyscraper when a local villain fight broke out. A new up-and-coming hero called Mount Lady resolved the issue, but during the fight hit one of the I-beams, causing it to fall and crush not only Ochaco's father, but five of his employees as well. That was bad enough already, but the hero commision refused to accept responsibility for the accident and spun a story that placed the blame on the company's shoulders, so the insurance company got out of paying the life insurance for dad or the other employees. Since Ochaco's family were the owners of the company and legally required to pay reparations to the families of the dead employees, that saddled her grieving mother with a large amount of debt.

Ochaco was freaking out about the debt when a kind stranger contacted her. He said he sympathized with her situation and was willing to pay off the debt, on the condition that Ochaco came to work for him. In hindsight, Ochaco should have realized it was too good to be true, but she was desperate. It wasn't until after they'd struck a deal that she realized he didn't want her waiting tables or getting coffee. He'd forced her to drop out of school and has now told her to meet with his allies in a seedy part of town.

When Ochaco reached the address her mysterious benefactor directed her too, she found a surprisingly elegant bar open during the day.

A blue-haired boy sitting at the bar looked up when she came in. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

Ochaco swallowed. "Um… I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. You wouldn't happen to know anybody going by the name All For One?"

The blue-haired boy who'd spoken looked confused. "What do you need with Sensei?"

"Ah, Miss Uraraka. You were able to make it," a familiar voice said.

"Sir?" Uraraka asked, looking around for the man she'd come to meet. She'd never met him in person, only speaking to him through the phone or email, so she had no idea what he looked like.

"The master isn't present," a misty bartender explained. "He prefers to provide instructions through the TV over there."

"Uraraka, these will be your new coworkers. Tomura, try to make your new team member comfortable. You'll be working together for a while."

The blue-haired boy - the one Uraraka assumed was called Tomura - turned on his bar stool to give her a critical look. "You don't look like much. Are you sure you're cut out for this kind of thing?"

Uraraka looked down at her feet. "I don't know, but I need the money for my family."

"Hm" Tomura started scratching his neck. "Hey Izuku! Get out here and meet the new girl."

There was a series of thumps from somewhere upstairs and a plain-looking boy with green hair walked in through the back door. He couldn't be much older than Uraraka, who was supposed to be in her last year of middle school, and seeing someone else her age made Uraraka relax a little.

"Tomura, who is…." The boy noticed Uraraka. "Oh, you're… um…" his cheeks darkened. "You're a girl."

"Nice observation skills there, Izuku," Tomura said.

The green-haired boy - Izuku - was quick to defend himself. "N-No it's nothing like that! I just assumed that you'd be a boy when Sensei told us you'd be coming, though I realize now that was somewhat sexist of me. Half the people in the world are girls after all, but I've just been spending all my time with Tomura and Kurogiri and Sensei for the past few years so I'm not used to interacting with girls and as such don't know what I'm supposed to do in this situation…"

"Oi, you're mumbling again," Tomura broke into Izuku's long-winded explanation.

"Eh? Oh, I'm so sorry!" he rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish. "This isn't a great first impression…"

"No, it's fine." Uraraka walked up to him. "My name is Ochako Uraraka. And your name is Izuku, right?"

Izuku's face lit up. "That's right! Izuku Midoriya. I'll also go by 'Analyst,' but that's more of a codename. This guy," Izuku pointed to the blue-haired guy, "is Tomura Shigaraki. He and I are practically brothers, so don't be surprised if I accidentally call him Tomura-nii. That man over there," he pointed to the misty bartender, "is Kurogiri. He's the person to talk to if you ever need something or want to talk to Sensei."

"Indeed," Kurogiri said. "By the way Ms. Uraraka, the master mentioned that you might need a place to stay for the foreseeable future."

"Oh! Well, yes, that would be appreciated," Uraraka turned to speak to Kurogiri. "My mom's house is too far away to commute, and I haven't had the chance to go apartment hunting…"

"Don't worry about it!" Izuku interrupted. "We've got several extra rooms upstairs. It's okay if she stays here, right? Kurogiri? Tomura?"

"That would be foe the best," Kurogiri said. "You and Tomura have to behave, now that there's a lady in the house."

Shigaraki gave Uraraka a hard look. "I guess she can stay."

"Great!" Izuku was practically jumping with enthusiasm. "Come on Uraraka, I'll show you where you'll be staying." He quickly turned and led her to the back door.

"Okay," Uraraka started to follow Izuku but stopped. "By the way, what is this place? What kind of work do we do?"

Tomura broke into hysterical laughter. "You mean you came here without knowing that?"

Uraraka's eyes migrated to the floor. _He's right, I should have figured out what I was doing before I came here._

Tomura spread his arms. "We are the League of Villains. We use our quirks and talents to destroy heroes!"

It finally occurred to Uraraka that she was in way over her head.

There was a light knock on her door. "Uraraka? Do you mind if I come in?"

"Don't care," Uraraka said, her voice muffled by the pillow she had over her head.

The door opened and a mop of green hair peeked in. "Are you alright?"

Uraraka moved the pillow down so she could glare at him. "What do you think?"

Izuku at least has the self-awareness to look uncomfortable. "Want to talk about it?"

"My dad is dead, I had to drop out of school, and I just found out I sold my soul to a villain organization to get my family out of debt. Does that sound like alright to you?"

Izuku winced, "Yikes. Okay, I didn't know about all that." He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. "You really don't want Tomura hearing you complain like that. He wouldn't react well."

Urarak blinked. "What? Is he sensitive?"

"Sort of? Well, not the way you're probably thinking…" Izuku scratched his cheek nervously. "Tomura… is ferociously loyal to All For One. He hates it when anyone speaks out against Sensei. Well, he hates a lot of things, but you'll figure out what topics to avoid after a while."

"Sounds like you have some experience with that."

Izuku shifted uncomfortably. "There's… plenty of good times to excuse the bad. I'd rather not talk about it."

Uraraka looked at Izuku. Really looked. She'd thought he was plain-looking when they first met and that was still true, but now she began to notice little things that told big stories. How his posture was slouched, making him appear smaller than he really was. How his freckles were fading from lack of sunlight. How his skin was paler than it should be. How his clothes were faded and old, worn down in some places. How he looked just… exhausted.

_Maybe I'm not the only person who didn't choose to be here_, Uraraka wondered.

"Izuku, why did you join the League of Villains?"

"Wha-um…" Izuku started looking around the room, anywhere but Uraraka. He was rubbing his fingers together, likely a nervous habit.

"You… you don't need to tell me if you don't want to," Uraraka eventually conceded. She'd have plenty of time to get the story out of him.

Izuku looked at her again, but now his face was covered in guilt. "I… I wanted Sensei to give me a quirk."

"What?"

Izuku opened his mouth and the words came out in a wave, like he couldn't stop it once he got started. "I was born quirkless. I still don't have a quirk. When I was a kid all my friends got really powerful quirks and I didn't, so I was devastated. They bullied me, calling me 'useless, quirkless, Deku' and I couldn't stand it, so when All For One offered to give me a quirk, I jumped at the chance and am still determined to get it by proving to him I deserve one…"

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold up!" Uraraka interrupted. "So, All For One is able to give people quirks?"

"Oh, yes. It's he quirk. He can take people's quirks, use them for himself, or give them to other people. I've seen him do it for some low-key lackeys like Moonfish."

"Wow. That's…" _Terrifying_. "Interesting."

Izuku gave her a look like he knew what she meant to say. "Well, it's the truth. I'm sure that if I help Tomura and All For One with the League of Villains he'll eventually give me a quirk."

Something about Izuku's explanation didn't sound quite right. Uraraka was sure she wasn't getting the whole story. "If you're able to help the League of Villains, doesn't that prove you don't need a quirk."

Izuku's face fell. "I don't want to be quirkless Deku anymore."

"Deku?"

"It's another way to pronounce the last part of my name. It… well, apparently it means I'm useless."

Uraraka frowned. "Actually, I don't think so. It sounds like a hero name to me."

Izuku looked at her in shock. "A hero name?"

"Yeah! Like, 'you can do it!' It would be really inspiring. If I had the chance to become a hero, I would have called myself 'Uravity' but Deku actually sounds way cooler."

Izuku continued staring at her in shock for several seconds. When he finally turned away, it was to stand up and walk to the door. "I… I should probably leave you alone. Kurogiri will get on my case if I finds out I was alone with you and the door was closed."

"I won't tell if you don't."

Izuku gave her a small smile. "If you want to talk some more, my room is right across the hall. Tomura's is at the end of the hallway and Kurogiri prefers to sleep in the basement."

Uraraka nodded. "Thanks, Izuku. I'll probably come to you if something comes up."

Izuku turned away. "You know, if you mean what you said about the meaning of Deku, I wouldn't if you called me that. Only you, though."

Uraraka smiled. "Alright, Deku."

_Maybe there's a silver lining here._


	11. Chapter 11: Family Reunion

**I have to warn you that the chapter coming out on Saturday, which takes place right before this, was written several days before I wrote this chapter. I reference the events of that chapter a few times in here, so just bare with me if you don't understand everything that's going on. Sorry!**

* * *

"Hey, Dabi? Can we talk for a sec?" Izuku asked.

Dabi turned to the de-facto leader of their little villain group. "Sure. What's up?"

Izuku waited until the others had all gone upstairs before continuing. "I've been contacted by a potential new recruit. Because of who he is, I figured it would be best to talk to you before inviting him to move in.

_A new recruit? Already?_ Still, Dabi wasn't sure why Izuku wanted to talk to him about this. "What's his name?"

"Shoto Todoroki."

_A baby sleeping in his mother's arms. A toddler looking at his hands in terror, the right one covered in frost and the left one wreathed in flame. A child trembling in exhaustion and pain. A boy's face covered in bandages and glaring up with hate-filled eyes._

Dabi took a deep breath. "Endeavour's son?"

Izuku nodded. "If you don't want him around I'll understand. I'll just tell Shoto to stay at UA and act as a spy. But if you could bear with us… I think it would do Shoto a lot of good to get out of that place."

"Does he know we're the ones who attacked his father?"

Izuku smirked. "I suspect that was our main selling point."

_Huh. Looks like the kid hasn't been brainwashed by the old man after all._ "Okay, bring him in."

Izuku looked skeptical. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. My issue is with Endeavour, not his kid. Besides, it sounds like little Shoto has some daddy issues."

Izuku pursed his lips, seemingly not convinced. "Alright, if you say so. If nothing else, this will give Shoto a chance to explain himself."

Dabi smiled - genuinely enthusiastic for once - and said, "I'm looking forward to that."

Shoto Todorki felt like a sheep in the wolf's den. Which did make sense; what was a child of the #1 hero doing around villains? What was he doing asking to join them? Well, that just proved how little they knew.

"Guys, this is Shoto Todoroki. He's offered to join us," Izuku said, introducing him to the waiting wolves.

Everyone in the room, with the exception of Izuku and the little girl playing on the floor, stared at Shoto like he was a freak.

Well, they weren't wrong, but it was still uncomfortable.

"Izuku, wasn't that guy at the UA sports festival?" one of the girls - the brunette - asked.

Izuku nodded. "Yes. Until today he was a hero student at UA, but please listen to what he has to say before you judge him." Izuku turned to Shoto and motioned for him to speak.

_Well, it's now or never._

"My father is Endeavour and I hate his guts."

That got their attention, but now that Shoto had started he couldn't stop. It was just like at the sports festival, when he poured his heart out to a stranger her now knew was a villain. Only now, this wasn't a trickle of hate leaking through the damn; it was the flood he was determined to let loose and share with the world.

"He's obsessed with beating All Might, and decided to have a successor that would be stronger than him. I don't know if any of you have heard of quirk marriages, but my father married my mother for no other reason than her quirk. When my quirk came in, father started a brutal training regiment. I was only four years old. It was painful for me, but stressed out mom out even more. She was already cracking under the strain of living with a man she hated, but she finally broke one night when I found her talking on the phone. She screamed that my left side was unsightly and poured boiling water over it." Shoto reached up to touch his scar, both to indicate that was when he got it and because he was remembering how much it had hurt.

Nobody else tried to speak.

"It hurt, what my mother had done to me, but I knew my father was the one to blame. He'd driven her to the breaking point, and once it was done he shipped her off to a mental hospital and swept it under the rug. At first I was determined to become a hero without using my flames, the quirk I'd gotten from my father, but I met Izuku and he showed me another way. The only reason my father was able to get away with all that he did was because society put him on a pedestal simply for being a strong hero. I want to help you change that aspect of society, and I definitely want to help you kill my father."

Shoto finished his story, putting his hands in his pockets. Nobody spoke for a long time.

An oddly familiar voice broke the silence. "Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Welcome to the Quirk Revolutionaries." The speaker was a young man covered in burn marks.

The lizard-like man looked at Shoto. "If Dabi thinks it's fine, then I have no objections. My name is Spinner, by the way."

The brunette girl came forward. "I'm Ochaco Uraraka. It's good that you're able to join us, Shoto."

"I'm Toga!" the blond said. "Oh, Izuku, I've got to try his blood! Can I cut him?"

"Not right now Toga, we should let Shoto get settled in first." Izuku leaned into Shoto's ear and whispered, "I'll explain later."

Shoto nodded. There was probably a lot he'd need to get caught up on.

The little girl got up from the floor and ran to Izuku. She hid behind his leg, casting a cautious glance at Shoto.

Izuku noticed her and placed a comforting hand on her head. "Do you want to introduce yourself to Shoto?"

The girl was painfully nervous, so Shoto took the initiative. He kneeled down so he was eye level with her. "My name is Shoto. What's yours?"

"I'm Eri," she said shyly.

"Izuku found Eri in a bad situation," the scarred man - Dabi - explained. "Since he's such a sucker for sob stories, we've been looking after her."

Oh. Shoto should have been surprised to find a child in a house full of villains, but for some reason it never crossed his mind.

Dabi clasped his hand on Shoto's shoulder. "It's getting late. How about you guys get Eri ready for bed while I talk to the new guy?"

Izuku frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Take care of the little princess," Dabi insisted.

Shoto gave a small nod. He didn't understand everything that was going on, but he didn't want Izuku to worry about him any more.

"Well, if either of you need anything, just holler." Izuku cast one last glance at Shoto before leading Eri up the stairs, with Uraraka, Toga, and Spinner trailing behind.

Once they were gone, Dabi stood in front of Shoto, sweeping his eyes over Shoto's entire body. It made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"You've grown a lot since I last saw you, Shoto."

That was surprising. "Have we met before?"

"When your quirk first came in, you were so scared. Mom and I both told you to keep it hidden, but Dad noticed anyway and dragged you away to start training."

Shoto sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Who… Who are you?"

"I'll admit, I was a little relieved. With you as the old man's perfect successor, I finally got a chance to have a childhood. For the first time I could remember, I got the chance to spend time with Natsuo and Fyumi and act like a real older brother to them."

Shoto realized what he was saying. Tears blurred his vision. "Big bro Touya?"

Warm arms circled Shoto in a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry for leaving you behind, Shoto. I needed to get out of that house, but I should've… I knew it would make things harder for you, but I left anyway. Can you ever forgive me?"

Shoto's arms came up to return his brother's hug. "Big bro… I thought you were dead. I can't believe…"

"Shhh. It's my fault; it was the only way I could think of to get the old man off my back. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I'm just so glad that you're here now."

Tears fell from Shoto's eyes. "There's nothing to forgive, big bro. You were just doing what you needed to do. I found my own path, and now we're together again."

Dabi - Touya - squeezed harder. "Thank you, Shoto."

The two brothers stayed like that, just holding each other, for a while. That is, until a new voice ruined the moment.

"So, you two are related I take it?" Izuku stood a few steps up, in full view of the brotherly embrace.

Dabi looked up. "Are you saying you expected this?"

"Well, your quirk works similarly to Endeavour's, so I always thought it was a possibility. I heard Shoto's story long before we met, so I knew that his family had a good reason to hate him as much as you do. Not to mention, your hatred of Endeavour was awfully personal, so it made even more sense for you to know him or Shoto personally." Izuku explained.

Dabi snorted. "You know Izuku, you're pretty scary when you do stuff like that."

"It's just a part of my charm," Izuku said. "By the way, there's a spare bedroom for you Shoto. I should warn you, Eri tends to crawl into bed with whoever's awake when she gets a nightmare, so don't be surprised if she visits you in the night."

"Come on, let's get you settled in," Dabi started to lead Shoto up the stairs.

"Thanks, big bro Touya," Shoto said.

"Eh… I don't mind if you call me that when we're alone, but I'd rather you call me Dabi around the others, okay?" Dabi rubbed his neck. "I've put a lot of effort into reinventing myself after I got out of that place."

Shoto considered this. "Maybe I should pick a new name for myself too."

Dabi laughed. "Sure, kid. You might want to run it past Izuku; he'll probably have a bunch of ideas for you."


	12. Chapter 12: Games with a New Brother

**And we're back to brotherly fluff! The prompt for this one was "games." I'm not sure how satisfied I am with this one, but can't quite place what the problem is... Oh well. Constructive critique is always appreciated!**

* * *

Izuku cried himself to sleep the night his father died. Kurogiri - the villain with a warping quirk - took him to another location and guided him to a nondescript room with a bed. Izuku probably should have tried to get out, but after the day he'd had, he just wanted to curl up and cry.

He woke up the next morning to the sound of a fantasy action game's theme song.

_Where's that coming from?_ Izuku wondered.

Quietly he slid out of bed and tip-toed across the room to the door. He turned the handle - slightly surprised to see it was unlocked - and pushed. The hinges creaked, but it wasn't loud enough to drown out the electronic game music. Izuku cautiously poked his head out the door and looked to the left, where the music was coming from.

The bedroom was in a narrow hallway, along with a couple other doors. The hallway ended a few feet away, with both walls dropping off to a large, poorly-lit room. The right side of the room, at least by what Izuku could see, consisted of a kitchen area with marble countertops and beige cabinet doors. The left side of the room was mostly obstructed from Izuku's view, but he noticed a flickering light source in that direction which could be a TV or a failing lightbulb.

Izuku crept towards the larger room. When he reached the corner he leaned out peaked at the left side of the room.

The only light source currently in the room was a TV, showing an action game, the one he recognized the theme song from. Across from the TV was a two-person couch, an armchair, and a coffee table. The table had a granola bar wrapper and coke bottle on one side. A blue-haired boy, probably around 11 or 12, was sitting on the couch with a Playstation 10 controller. Another door was on the other side of the room.

Izuku looked around, including back down the dark hallway, but didn't see the villains from yesterday. It was just him and the blue-haired boy.

Sure that nobody would be able to stop him from running to the police (like mom told him to if he was ever in trouble) or a hero, Izuku ran across the room to the door.

"What the.." The blue-haired boy said, noticing Izuku's presence.

Izuku tackled the doorknob and tried to turn it. It didn't budge.

The door was locked.

A firm hand made Izuku turn around. It was a blue-haired boy, though this was the first chance Izuku had gotten to see his face. With cracked lips, a wild hairdo, and bloodshot eyes he was creepier than the villains Izuku met yesterday.

"What are you doing here brat?" the blue-haired boy asked.

Creepy or not, this new boy was older and now that he'd noticed Izuku he might be able to help. Izuku grasped his arms and said, "Please! You have to help me! I've been taken by villains."

The older boy just looked at Izuku with confusion. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

Tears were building up in Izuku's eyes. "My name is Izuku Midoriya. My dad took me to someone who would be able to give me a quirk, but turns out he was actually a villain and he killed my dad and took me to a new place that I don't recognize and I just woke up and I need to get home to my mom so please help me get to the police or something."

"...Okay, I didn't understand most of that. You shouldn't mumble when you're talking to people," the older boy said. "You said your name was Izuku Midoriya? Well, mine is Tomura Shigaraki."

"Well, can you help me Tomura?"

"Help you with what?"

"Getting away from the villains! The door is locked…"

With that last statement, Tomura scowled. He pushed Izuku so hard he fell over.

Izuku sat up, tears tears really falling down his face now. "Wha-What was that for?"

Tomura just turned around and walked back to the couch. "You don't know anything, brat."

Izuku stood and tried the doorknob again, hoping it would work this time. It didn't. When Izuku had to face the fact that the doorknob wasn't going to budge, he walked over to the armchair to try talking to Tomura more.

Tomura was engrossed in the game. Izuku didn't play video games very much and didn't know the fantasy adventure game except by reputation, but he could tell that Tomura was good. He was all the way up to level 13 and frequently used super moves against the enemies. Still, the number of enemies he had to overcome this level was overwhelming. Tomura would occasionally grunt and wince with frustration.

Suddenly, the controller dissolve into dust before their eyes.

"SHIT!" Tomura swore. Onscreen, his character died and the Game Over screen played.

Izuku jumped. "Why- What- Is that your quirk?"

Tomura got up and walked to a cabinet next to the TV. "Yeah. Anytime I touch something with all five fingers it's destroyed." The cabinet was filled with at least 10 new controllers. Tomura grabbed one and settled back on the couch.

Izuku continued to watch Toumura play. He hadn't noticed it before, but Tomura held the controller strangely. Both if his pinky fingers were raised, undoubtedly to keep his quirk from activating. Izuku also noticed that whenever Tomura was frustrated, the pinkies would start to curl around the controller, like he was unconsciously trying to grip it harder.

As time went on, Izuku noticed the pinkies got dangerously close to touching the controller. "Your pinkies!" he shouted.

Tomura stiffened, his pinkies flying out straight again, but otherwise continued focusing on the game.

Once the level was done, Tomura turned to look at Izuku curiously.

"Thanks, I guess," Tomura said. "It would be a pain to restart that level again."

Izuku smiled. "No problem."

"Mind letting me know when I'm about the destroy the controller again?"

Izuku nodded. As Tomura started preparing for the next level in the game, Izuku cautiously asked, "Hey, do you know where we are?"

"Sensei's house."

Izuku frowned. "Who's Sensei?"

"He's the one who took me in when nobody else did."

That didn't really answer Izuku's question, but by that point Tomura was engrossed in the game again. They continued like that for a while - Tomura playing the game, Izuku warning him when he was about the destroy the controller - until a scratching noise started coming from the locked door.

Tomura paused the game and jumped up. "Is that you Sensei?"

Izuku turned in the chair, looking towards the door as well.

The doorknob finally turned, the door opened, and All For One walked in.

Izuku sucked in a sharp breath. He ran over to Tomura and tried to hide behind the older boy. He may not be sure about Tomura, but the older boy was certainly better than the man who'd killed Dad.

"You're back early, Sensei," Tomura said.

"I have some stuff I need to get done over here, Tomura Shigaraki," All For One replied.

Izuku trembled in fear. _He is Tomura's Sensei?_

All For One noticed Izuku from his poor hiding place. "Ah, I can see you've already met young Izuku Midoriya."

"Yeah," Tomura said. "What's the brat doing here?"

All For One smiled creepily. "He came to me wanting a favor, but I don't intend to give to him for free. He's going to be staying with us for a while. I hope you two will get along."

"He said he wanted to get away from us."

"Ah, well Izuku has unfortunately grown up around people who admire heroes and hasn't yet learned how the world works. I'm sure he'll adjust in time, especially if you help him. You'll need reliable allies in the future, and once Izuku gets his quirk he'll be a very useful to you."

Izuku's whole body was shaking. He wanted to say something, to yell at All For One and say he understood enough about the world, that he wouldn't be useful to a villain, that he'd get away and a hero like All Might would save him. But Izuku couldn't say anything in the face of such an overwhelming villain with absolute power over him.

Tomura considered All For One's words for a while. "So, he's going to be like a brother? Or my Player 2?"

All For One laughed. "Both, most likely."

"Okay, cool."

All For One nodded. "We'll speak more later, but if you need anything I'll be in my office downstairs. I'm leaving the front door locked so Izuku won't try to run again, so let me know if you need Kurogiri to get anything. Same goes for you, Izuku."

Izuku squeaked. He didn't like that All For One speaking to him.

All For One just walked away, into the hallway. Tomura stepped away from Izuku and turned around, giving the younger boy a calculating look. Izuku squirmed under his gaze.

"Hey, you ever play _Quirkless Battle Exodus_?" Tomura asked.

Izuku looked up. "Um, no?"

"It's an American MMORPG that lets you fight with pre-quirk era weaponry, like guns, grenades, and knives. It's an attempt to bring back the old shooting game genre, but with less shaky camera work."

Izuku nodded. He didn't understand this stuff, but it sounded pretty interesting.

"It's got this unique feature where not only can you team up with other players through the internet, but you can also get bonuses if you're using local multiplayer."

"What's local multiplayer?" Izuku asked.

"It's when two people are playing the same game on the same console with different controllers."

"Oh, okay." Izuku quickly realized what Tomura was talking about. "So, if we were to play together it would be local multiplayer?"

Tomura smiled. "You got it. I'll finally be able to find out what those bonuses are. So, are you game?"

Izuku smiled. "Sure!" He still wasn't sure about Tomura since he seemed to actually like All For One, but it would be fun to play together.

Tomura walked over another cabinet under the TV. "I'd recommend you select sniper when you chose your character's stats. It's supposedly the easiest for beginning players. Plus, you'll be able to pick off all those assholes who attack me from out of my range…"

_GRRRRLLLL_

Izuku touched his tummy. He hadn't noticed until now, but he was really hungry. He thought back to when he'd last eaten, and realized it had been lunchtime yesterday. He and Dad had left before Mom could serve dinner.

Tomura laughed. "Well, I guess we can press pause until you get a chance to eat. Want me to show you how to make cup ramen?"

Izuku nodded. He already knew how to make ramen, but Tomura didn't need to know that.


	13. Chapter 13: The Debut

**And here it is, the height of this AU! I hope you like it.**

* * *

"Are you ready for this?"

Everyone else in the room looked at Izuku. None of their faces showed even a hint of hesitation.

"I'm beyond ready for this," Dabi said.

"Let's see some blood!" Toga cheered.

"We're continuing Stain's work," Spinner said.

"I'm sure everything will go smoothly, Deku." Uraraka encouraged.

Izuku nodded. It was the big day. He'd been planning this for weeks. Nothing could go wrong, he'd planned for every eventuality. Even if they wouldn't complete their true objective, at least they'd spread their message with the world.

"Let's go. It's time for the Quirk Revolutionaries' debut."

Today was not a good day in Endevor's opinion. He'd been pulled out of his usual area to patrol in Hosu, since the police had received an anonymous tip that an escaped convict would be here. That wouldn't have been a problem, except the convict didn't actually show up. Clearly, someone was sending the Hosu police department on a wild goose chase and they'd dragged the #1 hero along for the ride.

Around 5:00 in the afternoon, Endeavor started walking back to the police station to tell them how much of a waste of time this was. A few blocks away, he noticed a group of people standing on top of a 3-story building. He thought they were odd, but wouldn't have given them a second thought if it weren't for the words they shouted once he was right in front of them.

"Well, if it isn't Endeavour, the #1 fake!"

Endeavour had heard insults like that before. After all, he wasn't known for being the most well-liked hero. Usually he would just ignore them and walk away, but today he was in a bad mood.

Endeavour looked up and shouted back, "Who are you calling a fake?!"

Although nobody could see it, the hooded person in front - a short teenage boy - smirked. His target had taken the bait.

"You, of course," the boy replied. "Hero society is made up of fakes, but you are the biggest fake of them all. You are the farthest thing from a true hero, Enji Todoroki."

Endeavour clenched his fists. _What do these people know about being a hero?_

Behind him, a crowd of onlookers were starting to gather.

"What makes me a fake? You have no idea what it takes to be a hero!" Endeavour demanded.

"A true hero wouldn't need to be paid to save people," the boy replied. "They would prioritize the victims over fame and glory. They wouldn't be concerned with their legacy at the expense of others. They would actually have morals and act on them!"

Enji froze. "_They wouldn't be concerned with their legacy at the expense of others." Do they know something about Shoto?_

He buried that thought. He could worry about his family secrets later. Though, that whole "fake heroes" thing sounded familiar…

Endeavour smirked. "I see now. You're idealists who follow that villain Stain's philosophy." He should have realized it earlier. After all, he was in the same area he'd originally caught the villain.

The boy just laughed. "We are more than just followers of Stain's philosophy. We are the inheritors of his mission!"

Suddenly, the boy tossed back his hood and let the whole hoodie fall to the ground behind him, allowing Endeavour and the crowd to see his face for the first time. His companions also came forward, so everyone could see them easily.

The leader couldn't be any older than Shoto. His green hair gave no hint to what his quirk was, and neither did any of his clothes. He was wearing a white dress shirt, a black vest, dress pants, and a green tie. The only thing about his dress that couldn't be explained as simply professional clothes were the back leather gloves on his hands and a sidearm attached to his belt. The rest of his companions were mostly nondescript, with one or two things about them that stood out.

One girl with a brown bob-cut had some metallic contraption attached to her pants and shoes. Another was a blond girl had a mouth mask and a large needle connected to a tube. There was a lizard man with an eye mask like Stain's. The one who was probably the oldest of these delinquents had burn scars covering most of his body, stapled to what little normal skin he had left.

The green-haired boy spread his arms wide. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Analyst, and we are The Quirk Revolutionaries!"

_Bit dramatic, aren't you kid?_ Endeavour thought.

Analyst let his arms fall to his side. "And now, for our debut, we shall destroy the king of fakes, Endeavour himself. Comet, you're up."

The brunette nodded. "Right." She leaned down to touch her shoes, and jumped.

Before anyone could consider catching her from what would be a nasty fall, air shot out of her shoes and propelled her straight towards Endeavour. She'd kicked him in the face before he realized he was being attacked.

The crowd screamed and started running away. There were a few who started recording the fight, but they all made sure they were a safe distance away. Several patrol cars had noticed the disturbance and were setting up a perimeter. Overall, it was your typical reaction to a hero vs. villain fight.

Endeavour prepared himself to attack the flying girl, but before he could a _blue-hot-hot-not-his_ flame erupted on his left side. When he looked at where it was coming from, the scarred man was standing on the edge of the roof with a blue flame in his hand.

The blond girl clapped her hands. "Good shot, Dabi!"

"Toga," Analyst said, "Did you forget your mission?"

"Oh! Right!" Toga made a quick salute and started running off to the side.

Before Endeavour could wonder what that was about, he felt a high-speed slap from the flying girl. He tried to shoot a fire blast at her, but instead it sent him flying in the opposite direction, straight into another building.

The flying girl - Endeavour had to assume she was the one called Comet - hovered in the air in front of him. "Fighting in zero gravity is pretty hard, isn't it?"

She touched her fingertips together and Endeavour slumped down. He hadn't realized his feet weren't touching the ground until he fell. The impact from the building hurt like hell, but he'd endured worse. He started to get up.

Comet looked back at her leader. "Dek- Analyst! He's in position."

Analyst nodded from his position on the opposite building. He pulled out the gun and got into a standard two-hand shooting position.

He wasn't aiming at Endeavor though. He was aiming at the water tank on top of the building Endeavour was leaning against.

_Bang!_

The bullet hit its mark, shooting a hole in the water tank. Water started to pour out, the pressure letting it shoot out over the lip of the edge of the roof and directly on top of Endeavour.

_Shit,_ he thought. _This must have been their plan all along._

Endeavour wasn't exactly weak against water; he was able to get it off him with enough effort, but the fact is setting fire on a wet surface doesn't work well. He won't be able to use his flames much until he's boiled most of the water off his body.

He tried to get out from the man-made waterfall, but before he could a knife pinned him to the building.

A lizard-like face entered Endeavour's field of vision. "You're not getting away, fake hero!"

With the water constantly pouring on Enji's head and a knife pinning him, Enji couldn't do anything against the villains in front of him. He could only watch as Analyst and Dabi climbed down the building through the fire escape and gathered around him with Comet and the lizard-man.

"Good job, Comet, Spinner." Analyst turned to Dabi and handed the gun to him. "I know you have a specific grudge against Endeavour. Would you like to do the honors, Dabi?"

Dabi took the gun, but seemed a little confused. He aimed it somewhat in Endeavour's direction, but wasn't able to line it up. He probably had never held a gun before in his life.

"Line the three dots up, the center one with where you want to aim," Analyst guided his teammate. "I'd recommend emptying the clip in his chest. It's a larger area, so you don't have to be accurate. He'll bleed out in minutes and will be in pain most of the time."

Dabi nodded and lined up the gun with his right hand. "Goodby, Enji Todoroki."

Bang!

Red-sharp pain exploded in Enji's right shoulder. Blood poured out of the hole as fast as the water was raining down on him. It wasn't lethal yet, but the shooter had more bullets.

Dabi lined up again, aiming slightly lower and to Enji's left, but before he could pull the trigger someone else shouted and got their attention.

"Get away from him, Villains!"

"Shit, it's Gang Orca," Analyst swore.

"Is that bad?" Comet asked.

"He gets stronger in the water," Analyst said. He thought for half a second and ordered, "Retreat. We've done all we can for now."

Dabi didn't look happy, but handed the gun back to Analyst. All of them scattered and ran in different directions, sneaking between the buildings so they couldn't be followed easily.

"Spread out!" Gang Orca ordered his sidekicks and the police on site. "They can't have gotten far!"

A paramedic ran up to Enji and started tending to his wounds. Despite his best efforts, Enji couldn't stay awake and quickly lost consciousness due to blood loss.

Unbeknownst to any of the heroes, the four villains they'd seen fleeing the scene each grabbed nondescript hoodies from where they'd been stashed earlier. They quickly vanished into the crowd. In addition, one of the police officers who was seen chasing after the villains was actually lying unconscious next to his car, a needle puncture in his side.

Uraraka groaned. "I can't believe we screwed that up! You worked so hard on the plan Deku!"

Izuku just shrugged. "I didn't anticipate Gang Orca being in the area. I'll need to check what heroes will be nearby in the future." he looked up from his laptop. "Toga, did you get a lot of blood?"

"Yep!" Toga said. "Mostly police officers, but I got a few civilians as well! I wish I could have gotten a hero though…"

Izuku smiled. "That's fine. I don't anticipate you'll need to impersonate a hero anytime soon."

Dabi scratched the back of his head. "Sorry I couldn't finish the job guys."

Izuku shook his head. "It's fine, Dabi. If anything, it's my fault for putting you on the spot without showing you how to shoot first. I'll make sure to do so before we go after Endeavour again."

Spinner looked at izuku carefully. "You don't seem very disappointed. Considering how passionate you were about our debut going just right, I'd assume you'd be devastated we didn't complete our goal."

"I'm disappointed we didn't kill Endeavour, yes. But, we did still complete several of our goals. For one thing, Toga has several more people she can turn into. For another, we've proven that Endeavor CAN be beaten. Even if we don't get to finish the job, there's no way hero society will be able to rely on him again. And finally, we got our name out there."

Izuku turned his laptop around and showed them the news feed. The headline was "New Villain Group Appears! The Quirk Revolutionaries: Anarchists or Genuine Reformers?" followed by "Endeavour in Critical Condition! Will the #1 Hero be Back to Work Soon?"

Uraraka looked up at Izuku. "You wanted us to make an impression."

Izuku nodded. "As much as I admire Stain, his one mistake was waiting until he was a martyr to share his ideals. Nobody truly understood what he was doing, so he wasn't able to force real change. But now that we've proven both our ideals and our resolve, people can actually be inspired by us."

As he said this, Izuku felt his phone vibrate. He pulled it out and saw it was a text message from a certain person he'd met at the UA Sports Festival:

_Shoto: I saw what you and your allies did. I want to help you, especially if you're going to take down my father again. Can we meet in person?_

Izuku smirked. _Looks like I we have our first new recruit._

* * *

**Me, trying to bullshit y'all: Izuku's clothes are like that because he always saw All For One in formal clothes so he associates them with power, but he wanted to add his own touch to prove he was his own man, so the tie is green like his eyes and hair and he's got slick gloves because he's very hands-on and... and... and...**

**Reality: Most of my favorite Villain!Deku fanart has him wearing a black vest and gloves. It makes him look so cool.**


	14. Chapter 14: A Weapon for the Quirkless

On the day of Izuku's 10th birthday, Kurogiri took him aside and said the master was giving him a gift, but he'd meet them in another location.

That was strange. Kurogiri, All For One, and Tomura had taken him out when their business affected him, but Izuku hadn't left the house for his own reasons since he'd started living there. Whatever Sensei was giving him would definitely be unusual.

Kurogiri's portal opened into a room painted black. Izuku was used to meeting Sensei in dark rooms, but this one wasn't poorly lit, it just had black walls and floors. There was a set of cubicle-like dividers lined up not far away and an empty space beyond that.

Sensei was standing in one of the cubicles, wearing his new mask. Izuku had heard that Sensei's doctor had created the mask to function as a portable life support system. Sensei turned when Izuku walked up.

"Ah, Izuku Midoriya. Congratulations on your 10th birthday!"

Izuku smiled. "Thank you, Sensei. Kurogiri mentioned you had a present for me?"

"Impatient, aren't we?"

Izuku looked down at his feet. "Sorry Sensei."

"It's fine, my boy. I think this present will be particularly useful to you in the future," Sensei said. "Now that you've proven your skills at planning attacks and other operations, I'd like you to take a more personal role in your plans and direct others in the field. You shouldn't be in the direct line of fire, but even standing on the sidelines carries some danger. This should allow you to defend yourself."

Izuku looked up. "Does this mean you're giving me my own quirk?"

"No, not yet."

Izuku's shoulders slumped. _I'm still not good enough to deserve a quirk._

"But, this is a weapon you'll be able to use. They're still standard for policemen in certain countries, and had been in use for centuries before the introduction of quirks." Sensei said.

Izuku nodded. "So, what is it?"

Sensei grabbed the present off a black table between the dividers. He handed it to Izuku.

It was a handgun.

Izuku took the gun reverently, looking it over. "Is this ... the real thing?"

"It is," Sensei confirmed. "This isn't a toy, Izuku. It's a weapon. If someone was to take it, point it at your head, and pull the trigger, you'd be dead. What I'm giving you is the power to kill a man. Do you understand?"

Izuku nodded, not taking his eyes off the gun. It was black and angular, probably a model from the early 21st century. He couldn't see any hammer to click back like in those old wild west movies, so it didn't need that to fire. The handle had a patterned texture, stopping near the bottom of the barrel. The trigger fit in seamlessly with the rest of the gun, but to Izuku it was awfully small for something so important.

"I need to go back to my doctor soon, but Kurogiri will stay here and help you try out your new gift." Senseai said. "This is a private shooting range I own so you're welcome to come back and practice more whenever you want, just let me or Kurogiri know. When the time comes, you don't want to miss."

Izuku nodded again, still not taking his eyes off the gun. He didn't notice when Sensei left, but he must have been standing still for an unusual amount of time since a misty hand touched his arm.

"You should practice while you have the chance," Kurogiri said. "Your lessons are going to get more difficult soon, and the master will want you to contribute to the organization more than you already do."

Izuku took a deep breath. "You're right."

He walked between the dividers. Ahead, in the space Izuku had thought was empty, was an outline of a man on a white paper-like sheet. It was quite some distance, probably 10 meters by Izuku's estimate. Carefully, Izuku lifted up the gun with one hand and pointed it at the target, similar to those people in old action movies who made shooting look easy.

Before he could pull the trigger, something tapped the top of his head.

Kurogiri was standing behind him, holding a pair of noise-canceling headphones. "Please wear these for practice. The sound is very loud, and may damage your hearing."

Izuku took the headphones sheepishly. "Thanks, Kurogiri."

"I'd also recommend you grip the gun with both hands, at least for now," Kurogiri added. "The kickback… well, it's going to be more than you expect."

"Have you ever shot a gun?"

"Only a few times," Kurogiri admitted. "It doesn't fit my fighting style, but there was a time I needed to be prepared for anything."

Izuku nodded and put on the headphones. He aimed the gun again, this time also wrapping his left hand around the fingers of his right. He was pretty sure the gun was shaking in his hands, but steeled himself and pulled the trigger.

PONG!

Kurogiri was right, the sound was very loud and not at all like what you heard in the movies. It sounded more like a "pop" than a bang, but at a volume Iuku had never heard a "pop" before. Kurogiri was also right about the kickback. His hands hadn't been ready for how the gun renched up, though he was careful not to drop it. His arms had taken the most shock, and he could feel it up to his shoulders.

Izuku looked down at the target. There wasn't a hole anywhere he could see.

"Not bad for your first try," Kurogiri said.

Izuku frowned. "I didn't even get close to the target."

"Well then, you'll just have to try again."

Izuku raised the gun again. He stared at the target over the top of the gun and realized there were three dots attached to the top of the barrel. He twisted the gun slightly and realized that one was located at the far end of the barrel, and two along the closer end. He deliberately lined them up, the one at the far end between the other two, and fired again.

PONG!

This time there was a hole, but it was very far off the mark.

"Were you aiming for the chest area?" Kurogiri asked.

"No, the head." Izuku said. The hole was located outside the outline, close to where the left shoulder should be.

"Hmm. Well, just aim a little higher and to the left this time." Kurogiri suggested.

Izuku held up the gun again, this time lining up the dots with the upper left corner of the target.

PONG!

"Oh! Bravo, young Izuku!"

This time, the hole was located in the outline of the man, roughly where his right temple should be.

Izuku smiled. He was actually good at this! Still, he knew he could be better…

Izuku continued shooting at the target. Sometimes he'd over or under adjust his aim and it would fall out of the outline, but overall he wasn't doing to bad. There were about 4 holes in the head and 5 in the chest by the time Izuku shot his 13th round.

Izuku lined up to shoot a 14th round and felt no resistance from the trigger and heard no pop from the bullet.

Izuku looked at the gun again. The top of the barrel had fallen back towards Izuku, revealing an empty chamber.

"Ah, looks like you've emptied the clip. I've got spare bullets for you to reload with, if you like." Kurogiri said.

Izuku fowned. He kind of wanted to, but… his shoulders where aching. "Can we wait until tomorrow? My arms are hurting."

Kurogiri nodded. "Alright, I understand. It's probably just as well, since I'm not sure the correct way to reload this gun."

Kurogiri pressed a button on the table and the target moved closer to them. Before Kurogiri replaced the target, he noticed how the holes matched up to vital points on his body. 4 holes in the head and 5 in the chest. Any one of those shots could be lethal.

_"What I'm giving you is the power to kill a man. Do you understand?"_

Izuku wasn't so sure he understood anymore. Could he actually kill someone with this little thing?

"Don't be discouraged, Izuku." Kurogiri said. "You're still a child, so your body has to adjust to the strain. The fact that you're starting so early means you'll have plenty of time to learn."

Izuku considered Kurogiri's words. Yeah, he was still a child. But Sensei had given him this weapon and undoubtedly expects him to use it.

_"What I'm giving you is the power to kill a man."_

Izuku set the gun down. _But how can you expect me, a child, to kill a man?_


	15. Chapter 15: Another Stray Kid

**And now we get to explore some of the consequences of Izuku not being in 1-A. Also, Eri gets a friend! Though they don't meet in this per say...**

* * *

Kota may hate heroes, but he hates these villains even more. He hated Shigaraki, that crusty bastard who locked him up in a lonely house and only took him anywhere to basically parade around his little league. He hated Mr. Compress, who would turn him into a ball when he acted out. He hated the Nomus, with their blank stares and lack of agency.

But most of all, he hated Muscular, the villain who'd not only killed his parents, but had dragged him to these villains when that hero-wannabe summer camp was attacked. If Muscular wasn't around, not only would his parents still be alive, but he wouldn't be stuck in this house filled with villains.

Kota was lonely and scared. He never thought he'd miss Aunt Shino, but he'd happily go back with the Wild Wild Pussycats to get out of this place.

Soon after Muscular had dragged him through a dark portal, that creep Shigaraki - the supposed leader of this group - took Kota to a new house and locked him in. Shigaraki kept trying to tell Kota it was "his home now" and that he should consider Shigaraki his "new big brother." Like he had some obsession with playing family.

As if Kota would be siblings with that creep.

They left Kota alone for most of the day, which was a small blessing. Still, they left him in that creepy house with nothing to do. There were a ridiculous number of video games around, but Kota had never been interested in those. He didn't have his phone, and the only computer he could find was locked with a password. The only things he could find that were remotely interesting were the books in his room.

It was clear that someone else had stayed in the room they'd dumped Kota in. There was a decent collection of boys clothes ranging from childish play clothes to formal suits. There were several sizes with the smallest tucked away in boxes in the back of the closet, so someone had stayed here long enough to grow out of old clothes. The stuff in the bottom box fit Kota, but were a little loose.

Kota tried not to wonder what had happened to the last person who stayed in this room.

Whoever that person was, they had to be smart. Some of the book were at a very high grade level, and even the ones Koda could read had a more advanced vocabulary. There were a few textbooks, including a college-level math book. Kota didn't even try to look at that one; math had never been his favorite subject.

The most interesting things he found were the notebooks. There were over a dozen of them, numbered starting with #5. They consisted of quirk analysis, mostly of notable heroes and villains. It covered their abilities, strengths, weaknesses, typical operations, areas of influence, and potential countermeasures. A few even had a short history section or psychological analysis. The sections on Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and some person called "All For One" were the most detailed and were included in every notebook, sometimes with new information added.

Reading those sections were really useful. Kota now knew that Kurogiri was responsible for all the quick travel, and although he wouldn't do anything against the league's interest he could be reasoned with. Shigaraki was a massive video game nerd, which at least explained all the games in the house and why he kept calling Kota "player 2." The information on his quirk was scary, but did explain why he was always grabbing things with his pinky raised.

In notebook number 8, Kota found a section on the hero duo Water Hose. He didn't dare try to read it, instead turning the page to a section on Moonfish. He did the same when he ran across the Wild Wild Pussycat's section.

After nearly 2 months in the house with nothing else to do, Kota was almost through with the last notebook. He knew way more information on heroes than he cared to, but he also knew more about the villains. Most of the coutermesures described in the notebook weren't practical (sticking a pen between Shigarki's fingers, really?) but he was able to analyze his situation a lot better. Maybe he'd find an opportunity to escape one of these days.

Shigaraki banged open the door to Kota's room. "Hey kid, you ready to go?"

Kota glared at Shigaraki. He may understand the villain better now, but that didn't change the fact that Kota hated his guts. "Where are we going?"

Shigaraki scratched his neck. The notebook author had noticed this as well, and explained it meant he was feeling a strong emotion, usually anger. "I've got a meeting with a rival and potential ally."

"Why are you taking me then?" Kota couldn't find a pattern to when Shigaraki took him out. It wasn't very often, but when he did take Kota out it was like he was parading a prized pet.

"Don't question me," Shigaraki said. "Kurogiri is waiting for us in the living room."

Knowing it was pointless to argue further, Kota just grabbed the notebook he was reading and followed Shigaraki.

Kurogiri was waiting for them. The portal opened into a park Kota didn't recognize. He could see the roof of buildings less than a kilometer away, so they were still in a city.

Seeing all the nature around him made Kota miss Aunt Shino's mountain lodge, but he pushed that thought away.

Mr. Compress walked up to Shigaraki. "You really think he'll come?"

"Yes," Shigarki said. "Izuku may be going through a rebellious stage, but he's my brother. Even when I'd yell at him and disintegrate his stuff, he'd always come crawling back to make up in time."

_Izuku?_ Kota wondered. _If he's Shigaraki's brother, could he be the one who used to stay in my room and wrote those notebooks?_

Kurogiri materialized behind Shigaraki. "I hope you two are able to make up. You're stronger together than either of you are apart."

Shigaraki scowled. "I'm not the one who left, you know."

"True, but you have to be the one to invite him back," Kurogiri said.

This was shocking. _Kurogiri is actually giving Shigaraki instructions? _Kota had thought the warp villain deferred to Shigaraki in everything.

Mr. Compress held up his hand. "Wait. I can hear something."

There was a rustle coming from the bushes on the other side of the park. Three figures broke out of the darkness and walked towards Shigaraki and the others. Kota couldn't make out many of these people's details, but he could infer some things from their outlines. The one on the left was wearing a hood and had his hands in his pockets. The one on the right was a girl with short hair and something bulky attached to each leg. The one in the middle was plain-looking, but since he was leading the group he was probably the most powerful.

"Izuku," Shigaraki said.

The trio stopped a short distance from Shigaraki. "Tomura," the one in the middle - Izuku? - replied.

Shigaraki scratched his neck again. "I suppose congratulations are in order. For humiliating Endeavour, the current #1 hero. It wasn't as impressive as Sensei's fight with All Might, but still had a massive effect on the heroes."

Izuku shrugged. "It's not that hard if you just take the time to plan."

Shigaraki's scratching increased in intensity. "I want you back, Izuku."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I want you to come back to the League of Villains," Shigaraki said with gritted teeth.

Izuku didn't say anything for a while. "Why should I?"

"What?"

"Why should I come back? I've got a pretty good thing going. I've got my own group and we've already made a name for ourselves without relying on Sensei."

Shigaraki grit his teeth. "You know we're stronger together."

Izuku laughed. "Let me guess, Kurogiri told you to say that? Or are you just parroting something you heard from Sensei years ago?"

Kota couldn't help himself, he broke out laughing. He'd been so terrified of Shigaraki, but this guys was just dragging him through the mud!

Izuku shifted slightly. "Who's the kid?"

"Hm? Oh, this is Kota," Shigaraki explained. "I picked him up a while back. With you gone, I needed a new player 2, you know? I figured he's so young, I could just raise him the same way Sensei raised the two of us."

Kota really didn't like the sound of that. He still didn't understand what Shigaraki needed a player 2 for, but he didn't want to be "raised" by this villain.

The hooded figure on the left leaned over to Izuku and whispered something in his ear. Izuku shifted again and motioned to his allies.

"You really don't understand me at all, do you Tomura-nii?" Izuku said. "I hated staying with Sensei. The only reason I didn't leave was because I had no choice. The only reason I tried so hard to please him was because I wanted my own quirk. The only reason I got along with you was because I sympathized with you."

"You brat!" Tomura yelled.

"I may be a brat, but at least I'm a brat with a purpose. Which is more than I can say for you." Izuku walked forward, but passed right by Shigaraki. He stopped in front of Kota. "Hey there, Kota, is it?"

Kota looked up. The dark still masked the majority of Izuku's features, but green eyes pierced through the shadows. An encouraging smile was barely visible in such low light, but Kota could still make it out.

"Do you want to be here?" Izuku asked.

Kota shook his head. "No way! I hate them! I'm only here because that bastard Muscular grabbed me and Shigaraki has been keeping me locked up in his house!"

"You- You ungrateful little... " Shigaraki raged.

"I understand, Kota." Izuku kneeled down so he was eye-level with Kota. He leaned in and whispered, "Would you like me to get you away from them?"

Kota didn't even stop to consider the possibilities. He just nodded. Wetness clouded his already limited vision, though Kota couldn't figure out why he could be crying.

"I'm sorry Tomura, but I won't be returning to the league with you," Izuku said, not taking his eyes off Kota. "I have my own teammates relying on me, and I won't force them to join with you. Not to mention, you and I just have completely different values. You want to destroy the world, but I want it to be rebuilt as a better place." Slowly, Izuku inched his right hand down to fiddle with something on his thigh. "Plus, I'm not interested in in kidnapping kids, only in helping them get out of bad situations."

Izuku turned around, pulled a gun out, and shot Mr. Compress in the thigh. As Compress fell, Izuku wrapped his free hand around Kota's waist and picked him up.

"Elemental, subdue with right only. Comet, pickup with payload." Izuku shouted, spinning around.

Shigaraki ran at Izuku and Kota, his hand outstretched to attack. "Don't you dare!"

Suddenly, a wall of ice spread across the ground, trapping Shigaraki, Mr. Compress, and Kurogiri. Compress was only able to struggle weakly, but Shigaraki touched the ice and started disintegrating it with his quirk.

Before Kota could worry what would happen when Shigaraki broke out, the girl that came with Izuku flew - as in, actually flew in the air - towards him. Something slapped Kota's head, and a few seconds later he was moving faster than he thought possible without a vehicle. The wind was harsh on his face, so he buried it in Izuku's chest and focused on getting his breathing under control.

About a minute later, Izuku spoke over the wind. "This should be far enough, Uraraka. Set us down."

The wind and speed bot stopped. Izuku loosened his grip on Kota, allowing the boy to drop on scratchy turf grass. They'd landed in a soccer field. Kota realized he felt a lot heavier than he did while flying.

The girl was standing a few feet away. "I'm proud of you, you know."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean Uraraka?"

"You didn't give into Shigaraki. You stood your ground and told him how you really feel." The girl - Uraraka - explained.

"That isn't much in the grand scheme of things."

"Maybe, but the Izuku I met a year ago would've given into Tomura's demands. I like this Izuku better. He stands up for himself and what he wants."

Izuku was silent for a while. "I just didn't want another kid to get trapped in this life like I was."

"Still, it's impressive, considering how much of a pushover you used to be."

Someone new walked up to Izuku and Uraraka. It was the hooded guy, the third member of Izuku's group. "I left them encased in thick ice, especially the warp villain. He's got an airhole, but Shigaraki is going to have to destroy ice a meter thick to get him out."

"Good. That should keep him busy long enough for us to figure out what to do next." Izuku turned to Kota. "We can take you to a police station or hero agency around here. They should be able to get you to your family."

Kota didn't like the sound of that. "Don't do that! The heroes won't be able to protect me from Shigaraki or Muscular. They weren't able to do so the first time."

Izuku looked confused. "Don't you want to be with your family again?"

"Mom and Dad are dead. They were heroes, and Muscular killed them. The only family I have is Aunt Shino, but she's a stupid hero too. When the League came, she and all the other pros where to concerned protecting the wannabe heroes that they didn't notice when I disappeared!"

All three of the others stared at Kota in shock.

Tears were clouding Kota's vision again. He wiped them away. "I hate heroes, and quirks too. Everyone is just fighting and killing each other for no reason. I hate those league jerks 'cause Muscular killed my parents and Shigaraki tried to kidnap me. Nobody came for me, nobody saved me, except for you guys. Please, don't make me go back to the heroes!"

The hooded guy pushed back his hood, revealing hair that was half red, half white. "Well, Mandalay did say he has hated heroes ever since his parents died."

Kota stared at him. "Wait, weren't you one of those hero wannabes at the camp?"

Shoto Todoroki smirked. "Let's just say i had a change of heart."

"You know, a kid that hates heroes would fit in well with a group of villains," Uraraka said.

Izuku, however, continued to frown. "Dabi will get on my case if I bring home another stray kid."

"I'll handle Dabi. He listens to me," Shoto said. "Besides, I'm pretty sure he only does stuff like that to play devil's advocate."

Izuku sighed. "Fine! You guys win. Kota, would you like to stay with us?"

Kota wanted to jump for joy. "Yes! Yes, please, take me with you! You're the first people I've met who understand me."

Izuku smiled. "Well,come along then. It's a bit of a walk to the house from here. Oh, just so you're aware, we're also taking care of a girl your age named Eri. I'm sure you'll get along…"

And so, Kota followed behind his rescuers, some of the first people he'd met that he didn't have a reason to hate.


	16. Chapter 16: The USJ Attack

**This one gave me a lot of stress and took a long time to complete, but I think it turned out relatively well. I'm still not sure about my talent for writing action scenes, so please feel free to give me constructive critique.**

* * *

Everything was ready. Several low-level grunts were gathered in the basement. Izuku had double-checked everyone's knowledge of the plan, including Uraraka's secret mission. The special equipment he would need was assembled and in working order. Uraraka's air-powered jets were fully functional. Kurogiri knew where to send everyone for the best results. Tomura was wearing the hands that covered his face and clung to his body. There wasn't anything else to be done.

"It's time," Tomura said.

"Are you nervous?" asked Izuku.

"No. I've been waiting to do this for years."

Izuku nodded. He should have known Tomura would feel that way.

The two brothers stepped through the portal to the USJ together. Even if he had wanted to, Izuku didn't dare look back.

The fight had already begun when they arrived. All according to Izuku's plan.

Kurogiri had brought some of the low-level villains out first to prompt a response from the teachers and students. When they attacked, Kurogiri warped the students to various areas of the USJ according to each student's quirk. The grunts whose quirks could be supported by the environment were then transported to the their own corresponding areas, with the remaining villains staying in the center to combat the pros.

Izuku noticed that several of the students remained huddled behind their teachers, not that far from the entrance. He expected that not all of the students would give Kurogiri a chance to warp them away, but he was somewhat surprised by how many were left. The few grunts he'd sent to keep them from escaping might not be enough.

Well, unexpected changes like that were part of the reason why Izuku insisted on coming himself. The other reason was more…. Personal.

"Kurogiri, you might want to send a few more people up to keep the students contained," Izuku said. "Comet, you know your orders."

Uraraka, who had walked through the portal just ahead of Izuku and Shigaraki, nodded. "Right. I'm on it!"

She touched her shoes and was soon zooming towards the Downpour zone.

Izuku turned to Tomura. "If you need me, I'll be in the Landslide zone."

"You don't want to help destroy Eraserhead and All Might?" Tomura asked.

"I know I don't have a chance against the pros. Maybe Eraserhead, since I'm not reliant on a quirk, but definitely not All Might." Izuku heaved the large support item he'd brought over his shoulder. "Besides, that wasn't part of the plan. I've got some business to take care of."

With that, Izuku walked up to the Landslide zone and the demon from his past waiting there.

Uraraka was on a mission. Well, two missions, but Izuku had provided a plan that let her complete both simultaneously.

"_I know this is a lot, but you're the only one who can do it without anyone noticing" Izuku said just a few days before the attack._

Deku was putting a lot of trust in her, and Uraraka didn't want to let him down. She just hoped that her Quirk would hold up.

Her first stop was an enclosed dome filled with rain and lightning. A high-speed kick was enough to make a decent hole for her to enter through, and once she was through it was easy to find the students. The constant rain made it harder for her to see, but Izuku had told her to wear a waterproof jacket so it wouldn't hinder her any more.

Uraraka released her quirk and touched down right behind a girl with long, black hair. The other student nearby - a boy with 6 tentacle-like arms - noticed her immediately.

"Yaoyorozu! Behind you!" he shouted.

Yaoyorozu turned around, a metal pole developing out of her arm, but Uraraka was quicker. A single grab of the girl's forearm to activate zero-gravity and a quick toss to the ceiling, and Yaoyorozu was flying high towards the top of the dome. She may be able to move around up there by grabbing the supports of the dome, but she'll be mostly out of commision.

Uraraka then did the same to the boy with tentacle arms.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Several low-level grunts walked up to her.

"Analyst's orders," Uraraka explained. She used Izuku's code name both because these guys might not know his real name, and because she knew Izuku wanted to control who knew his real name. "Your missions are to contain any students in your area and be prepared to fight any pros that come to your area. Those students are now out of commision, so you can save your strength."

The other villains grumbled, but Uraraka didn't care. _Now not only will the final battle have less potential interferences, but the students shouldn't get hurt._

She activated her quirk on herself and zoomed out of the dome. Her next stop was the Flood zone. It only had one student, a girl with a frog quirk who was holding her own against the water-based villains surprisingly well. Still, Uraraka was able to swoop down, pluck the girl out of the water, and throw her to the relative safety of the ceiling in zero-gravity.

The next zone was the Conflagration zone, another domed area, but it was filled with flames instead of stormy weather. Izuku had warned her that rising heat might mess with her ability to navigate using the air-powered thrusters, so she landed and walked through the door.

Instead of the constant fires she expected, the entire area was covered in a thick layer of ice. She could see the grunts sent to this zone frozen in place, trapped in ice up to their waists.

The only person still moving was a boy with half-red, half-white hair. He turned slightly towards Uraraka and sent a wave of ice cascading towards her.

She flew out of that place as fast as she could. That student could clearly take care of himself, and the others wouldn't have any reason to complain if she avoided fighting such an overwhelming opponent.

The next place was the Mountain zone. There were two boys there: one with orange hair with hints of black, the other with a face like a rock. She remembered from Izuku's analysis that the first had an electric quirk that could knock out anyone in such an enclosed area, and the second had a quirk that controls animals and might have an edge in this zone, assuming it was accurate to the environment. Well, Uraraka didn't see any animals in the vicinity and any electric attack the other kid used would harm his friend as well, so that didn't turn out as planned.

Still, this was what Uraraka was for, so she just made them float to safety.

As she raced off to the next zone, Uraraka had to fight off the growing sense of nausea. _That's five people I'm using my quirk on. Well, six if you count myself. In practice, I've been able to float ten objects at once without throwing up, but I haven't used it on people very much. Just myself and Deku. _

She hoped there weren't many people in the ruins zone.

Uraraka flew right past the landslide zone, since Izuku was dealing with the only student there. She still didn't understand what Katsuki Bakugo did to make Izuku hate him so much, but she hoped her friend would get some closure.

Bakugo was fucking _pissed._

Who the hell were these villains anyway? How did they get past UA's security? What were they hoping to accomplish?

Whatever, it didn't matter. Bakugo knew he could defeat them anyway. Or at least he would have, if that stupid mist guy hadn't warped him away. Instead he was stuck on the edge of a steep slope, and there weren't any villains nearby for him to beat up.

To make matters worse, the environment was hard for him to navigate. If he just walked down he was in constant danger of slipping on the loose dirt and falling without control. If he tried using his quirk to fly out of there, the dirt it would kick up stung his eyes. He'd already tried that, and his eyes still hurt.

Still, he was able to make it down to a flat area closer to ground level. He looked over the side and realized he still had a long way to go, but at least it was progress.

"Stupid shitty villains," Bakugo muttered, walking over to a slope with more footholds off to his right. "Who do those fuckers think they are attacking a hero school? Especially the one All Might is teaching at?"

"Oh Kachan, you never change."

Bakugo spun around. "Who's there?"

Maniacal laughter came up from farther down the mountain. It was a plain-looking villain - well, boy, he couldn't be older than Bakugo himself - holding a large metal plate, larger than the villain's torso. Something about the villain's green hair and freckled face were familiar, but Bakugo couldn't place it.

Didn't matter anyway. He was an intruder, a villain, so Bakugo was gonna stomp him.

"DIE!" Bakugo jumped, aiming straight for the villain, hands raised to fire his ultimate explosion right in the fucker's smug face. He didn't even consider how he would land. That would be future Bakugo's problem.

BOOM!

Bakugo was flying, rocketing, and suddenly SLAMMED into the sloped ground. The dust cloud blanketed everything, stinging his eyes and lungs and making him slide several feet. Even when he stopped sliding, Bakugo couldn't stand up without coughing up a lung.

He rubbed his eyes, confident that the dust had settled enough so he could see. It only took a second for Bakugo to realize he was in a worse position than before.

Instead of harming the villain, the blast had rocketed Bakugo back farther up the mountain. The villain wasn't even fazed, just smirking and waving the metal plate around.

"Are you confused, Kachan?"

Bakugo growled. "What the FUCK did you call me?!" _Seriously, why would he call me that? Nobody's called me Kachan since I was seven years old._

The villain just continued to laugh. "You see, I chose this environment specifically to counter your quirk. Any explosions you create are likely to stir up the loose dust from the landslide, impairing your vision and overall fighting ability. The slope will also make it difficult for you to maneuver on the ground, since stable footing isn't guaranteed. And on the off chance that you could get a hit in, well, I brought this," he waved the metal plate again. "It's made to the same specifications as blast shields and the body shells of armored cars. It's more than enough to protect me from your explosions. I also have the advantage of maneuverability, since my mountain-climbing boots provide plenty of traction even in this kind of environment. Face it, Kachan. In this case, you're outclassed."

Bakugo stared at the villain. He just stood there, dumbfounded, for nearly a minute. He could see the villain get confused and climb up to meet him, but Bakugo just stood there, thinking.

Once he figured it out, Bakugo broke out laughing. "Hey villain! You don't watch a lot of movies, do you?"

"Huh?"

"After the villain has explained their plan to the hero, they always loose."

Bakugo jumped again, higher, more focused on gaining distance from the ground than aiming for a specific point. _If I'm at a disadvantage on the ground, then I'll just focus on attacking from the air._ Once he was high enough, Bakugo set off a couple of explosions to propel him forward.

"What…" The villain was dumbfounded.

Bakugo continued to fly over the villain's head, then set off another explosion to change directions, shooting him directly at the villain's unprotected back. _That blast shield can only protect him from one side. Plus, it's heavy, so he can't move that fast. He was only able to counter my last attack because he saw it coming and already had his shield prepared. But an attack from behind…_

"No…" The villain must have figured out Bakugo's plan. He turned around, trying to drag the blast shield along.

_Too slow, dipshit._

Bakugo reached the villain, but didn't set off an explosion right away. Instead, he grabbed the villains's left arm - the one holding the shield - and made an explosion over the other shoulder, directly into the blast shield.

BOOM!

The explosion sent Bakugo flying back again, but this time he was prepared. He covered his mouth, nose, and eyes with his arms and curled up so he'd roll down the mountain to a controlled stop. At some point he lost his hold on the villain, but he knew his hold lasted long enough to drag the villain away from the shield, which was his objective.

Bakugo found his footing and stood up, surveying the area again. The dust cloud had mostly gone down now, and the shield was hanging uselessly off a ledge at least 5 meters above his head. The villain, on the other hand, had fallen down the slope with Bakugo and was now kneeling about a foot away, coughing.

He didn't give the villain a chance to recover. Bakugo grabbed the villain's arm again and tackled him to the ground.

"Give it up, stupid fucker," Bakugo growled.

The villain got his bearings, and grabbed something off his belt with his right hand.

Bakugo didn't take the chance, he just knocked the object away, farther down the slope.

"You're beaten, dumbass. Now, are you going to tell me what you're trying to pull already?"

The villain's eyes were watery, probably from all the dust. "Why does it have to be you, Kachan? You don't deserve to be a hero."

_There he goes again with the childhood nickname._ "Why do you keep calling me that? Kachan was a stupid childhood nickname."

The villain didn't answer the question. "You're a bully, Kachan. There's no way a bully like you could be a hero."

"Who are you calling a bully, you piece of shit!" Bakugo grabbed villain by its shoulders and started shaking. "You've got some nerve, breaking in here…"

Bakugo froze.

He'd pulled down the villain's shirt by a few inches, revealing a tiny, faded scar on his opponent's left shoulder. It wasn't much, and he wouldn't have noticed it if he wasn't so close, but he recognized the star shape. He'd found out what could make that scar the first time he used his quirk on a classmate during elementary school. It was the reason he didn't use his quirk on people unless they really pissed him off.

Before getting into UA and meeting bastards like Icy Hot and Foureyes, there'd only been one person who'd ever frustrated him enough to use his quirk on them. That person was one of the few people to call him Kachan, and had mysteriously disappeared about eight years ago.

_A childish hand offering help where it wasn't needed. A notebook labeled "Hero Analysis for the future." A freckled face looking at him in admiration, then fear. A green-haired woman sobbing into mom's shoulder._

"Deku?"

Izuku was fucked. He knew it, and he had nobody to blame but himself. He should have realized that Kachan would have figured out other ways to use his quirk. This was why he asked Tomura to hold off until after the Sports Festival, so he could get a feel for the student's fighting styles. All his preparation, the special equipment he got specifically for this, the careful strategizing and planning in the dead of night, all of it was for naught. He was about to get his face blown off by his former childhood friend, and there was nothing he could do.

Bakugo froze, staring at Izuku's face in shock. "Deku?"

_Deku must be what they call someone who's useless. Useless, quirkless, Deku!_

Izuku's rage returned. "Don't call me that!"

Bakugo had sat up to stare, so all Izuku had to do to get away was twist his hips and throw the other boy off balance. Izuku crawled away to another patch of stable ground. Only then did he dare to stand up and look back.

Bakugo was slow in getting back up. "Izuku… Is that really you? You're alive?"

"Yes, I'm alive, but I'm not the 'useless Deku' you once knew. That Deku is gone, I'm the vengeful ghost from your past left in his place."

Bakugo was still staring, blinking stupidly. Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku noticed the gun laying a few feet further down the slope. He rushed to retrieve it. Not only was it his only weapon left, but Sensei would lecture him if he lost it. He might not even get a new one.

Izuku picked up the gun, dusted off the dirt, and made sure it was in working order. He racked the side and an intact bullet fell out. _Good, it's not damaged._

Izuku turned back to Bakugo, who was now scowling.

"What the FUCK is a SHITTY, QUIRKLESS NERD LIKE YOU DOING AS A VILLAIN?"

Izuku looked down. "I don't have to explain myself to you, Kachan." _I did what I had to, living with Sensei._

Bakugo looked like he was about to say something else, but a booming voice rang out over the entire USJ.

"Never fear, for I am here!"

Izuku sucked in a breath. "All Might." _He's here. Tomura might actually succeed in killing him._ Izuku wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Bakugo smirked. "Hell yeah, All Might is here. You and your villain friends are fucked, Deku. But you should know that better than anyone. You were more of an All Might fanboy than I was, back in the day."

"That was a long time ago." _If only that were true._

Bakugo rolled his eyes. "Whatever, nerd. I've got bigger fish to fry. I'll be back to beat some sense into you once I've finished helping All Might take out the big bad." He jumped in the air and propelled himself out the the Landslide zone before Izuku could stop him.

"Wait! We're not done here!" Izuku shouted, but Bakugo was already long gone.

_Shit_, he realized. _Bakugo will mess up Tomura's big moment, and it'll be my fault._

Izuku got ready to run off and salvage the situation on foot, but a familiar voice called out from above.

"Deku!" Uraraka was zooming straight for him.

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. "It's Analyst in the field, Comet."

Uraraka stopped a few feet away from him. "Aw shoot, sorry!"

"It's fine, at least you didn't use my real name." Izuku said. "Think you can give me a lift? My opponent got away."

"Seriously? After all your training and prep? That's got to suck." Uraraka reached out her hand to grab his, but her face turned green.

Before she could touch him, Uraraka turned away and threw up.

_She overused her quirk_. "Never mind, give yourself a break. You've pushed yourself too hard already. I shouldn't have asked you to save all the students."

"No, no, I can handle this, just give me a second." Uraraka landed next to Izuku and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She must have released herself fro zero-gravity to get her bearings.

"Do you think you could hit me real quick? I'll get an aerial view and see if any of the students are in a position where you can release them. I can't see inside the Conflagration zone or the Downpour zone, but you'll feel better if you can release just one person."

Uraraka nodded. "Use the weighted line, I'm not sure I'd be able to catch you right now."

Izuku nodded, pulling out the requested line. It had a small hook tied at one end, similar to the ones used in securing tents. He drove the hook into the ground, securing it. _She must be more overextended than she wants to admit._

Uraraka grabbed his arm and threw him up in the air. They'd done this maneuver thousands of times in practice, both so Uraraka could get used to using her quirk constantly, and to test out methods of using zero-gravity to their advantage. They were perfectly in sink at this point.

"The two people in the Downpour zone where the guy with six arms and a girl called Yaoyorozu. If you see either of them up and about, let me know," Uraraka said.

"There is a possibility they got out. Yayorozu's Quirk is to create things from her own body."

"Huh. Oh, and don't worry about the Fire zone. The only person there had a powerful ice quirk, and I did NOT want to mess with him."

_Must be Endeavour's son. That was probably a good choice, and I doubt Tomura will blame her if he gets to see that guy's power,_ Izuku thought.

Izuku floated up to the ceiling about 10 meters, which was the length of the rope. The tension in the rope caused him to start slowly float downwards. He could see the entire USJ from this height. Over near the entranceway, he saw 7 students huddled together around the critically injured pro Thirteen. They were worse for wear, but at least they hadn't made themselves enough of a nuisance for the grunts to injure them. In the Ruins zone, three students - Acid girl (Mina), Dark Shadow (Tokoyami), and Hardening (Kirishima) - were floating in the air. Before his very eyes, Dark Shadow shot out and grabbed first his classmates, then a nearby building they could all cling to. They were far enough away from the grunts that so long as they remained hidden, they would be fine.

_Well, there's three people Uraraka can release._

He turned to the left and checked the students in the Mountain Zone. Both Denki and Koda where floating close to the ceiling, but he noticed two other people not that far off. He recognized them as Yayourozu and Shoji, the two from the Downpour Zone. They must have gotten out somehow and had floated across the building. No, not floated: Yauyorozu had a grappling hook. She must have created it so she and her classmates could get around. Both she and Shoji were reaching out to grab Denki and Koda.

_Those Four will be fine, so long as they stick together. Yaoyorozu's quirk really is amazing._

Outside the Conflagration zone, a large mountain of ice was running to the Central Plaza.

_The Todoroki. Yeah, he can take care of himself._

The last zone remaining was the Flood Zone, and Izuku only saw Asui there. On top of that, the girl had used her frog-like tongue to cling to the boat in the middle of the water.

_The UA students this year are really resourceful. Okay, it looks like Uraraka can release everyone, that's three...seven...eight...Kachan and Todoroki are in the center, that makes ten…the rest are by the entrance… Wait, how many are there?_

Izuku counted all the students again. A third time. Despite still being in zero gravity, a weight settled in his chest.

_There's only 17 students here. There were 20 at the beginning of the year, but Aizawa expelled one on the first day, and another dropped out a few days later. But that still leaves one. Is it the invisible girl? No, I can see her gloves by the entranceway huddle…_

He ran through the student's quirks in his head, trying to find the one that was missing. When he did, the situation became clear.

_The Iida boy. Engine. If his quirk is half as good as his brother's it'll take no time for him to get help. The success of this mission is entirely dependant on limiting the number of pros we need to fight. We need to abort._

Izuku grabbed the line and pulled himself down to the ground. On the way, he noticed Yaoyorozu was pulling the three students near her to the ground as well.

Once he was only a foot or two above the ground, Uraraka released him from her quirk. "What did you find?"

"You can release all the students, they're surprisingly resourceful and shouldn't fall too far. But more importantly, one of the students got away and is undoubtedly bringing help."

Uraraka's eyes widened. She touched her fingertips, releasing everyone she'd used her quirk on, then grabbed Izuku's arm. "I'll get you to Shigaraki. He won't want to abandon the mission, but he will if you tell him to."

Izuku nodded. "Alright, let's go."

Uraraka turned on her thrusters, and the two rocketed towards the central plaza. They landed right beside Tomura, who was watching the Nomu's fight with All Might gleefully. All Might had the Nomu pinned, but one of Kurogiri's gates allowed the Nomu to squeeze on the hero's torso. Red blossomed from All Might's left side, opening an old wound.

_That's where Sensei hit him six years ago,_ Izuku realized.

Slowly, the Nomu pulled All might through the gate. Izuku recognized this as one of the techniques he'd discussed with Tomura and Kurogiri that may be able to kill someone as powerful as All Might.

Something in Izuku's gut twisted at the sight. _This is good, right? Tomura is getting what he wants. Besides, it's not like the world is lacking in heroes…_ Still, a small, childish voice in the back of Izuku's head protested.

BOOM!

A flash of red and yellow attacked Kurogiri, right in the metal collar around his neck. When the dust cleared, Izuku recognized him as Kachan.

"Let go of All Might, you damn villain!" Bakugo said.

When Izuku saw his former bully attacking Kurogiri, he forgot about everything else. The plan, Shigaraki, All Might, the other students, all other thoughts left his mind. All he felt was his intense hatred of the other boy.

He lifted up his gun and shot. The bullet hit Bakugo in the arm, forcing him to recoil and release Kurogiri. He clutched his arm in pain, staring at Izuku in shock.

"Get away from Kurogiri or the next one will go in your skull!" Izuku shouted.

Bakugo's face twisted into a snarl. "You've really become a villain, haven't you Deku?"

"It's as you said when we were kids, Kachan. I can't become a hero. But I'll do everything I can to make sure you don't get to become one either."

"What the - What kind of logic is that?" Bakugo was walking towards Izuku. "The Izuku Midoriya I knew wouldn't have said something so ridiculous."

Izuku kept his gun pointed as Bakugo, though he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. "Well, I'm not the Izuku Midoriya you knew. I've changed; that's what eight years can do to a person."

Bakugo stopped barely a foot away from Izuku. "You know, your mom hasn't changed much. She's still holding out on the hope that you'll come home."

"M-Mom?" Izuku couldn't breath. "Is she - Is she alright?"

"Everyone thinks her only kid is dead, dumbass! How do you think she's doing? Why the FUCK haven't you come home already?"

Izuku turned away. How could he possibly explain to Kachan what was going on? "You don't understand. You could never understand."

"Try me, Dumbass."

Suddenly, Tomura cut in and lunged at Bakugo. "You messed up my chance to kill All Might!"

Bakugo reflexively jumped back, using his explosions to get more distance. He was far out of Tomura's reach in seconds.

Tomura turned to Izuku. "What the hell happened to the plan, Analyst? First this kid comes in and distracts Kurogiri right when he's about to slice All Might in half, then that cryokinetic kid freezes half the Nomu so he has to waste time and regenerate. I thought your plan was supposed to prevent the students from interfering in my fight!"

"There were some complications," Izuku explained. He then remembered why he'd originally sought out Tomura for. "Speaking of complications, one of the students managed to get out. He's surely getting backup. We need to abort the mission and get away while we still can."

"Abort the mission? Run away? When I'm so close to beating the final boss?" Tomura said. "No way, this was your mistake, but I'm still going to be able to salvage it."

Izuku opened his mouth to rebuke Tomura, but before he got a word out a bullet few by and hit the Nemu.

"Shit, it's Snipe!" Izuku grabbed Tomura's arm and turned, looking for his other allies. "Kurogiri! We need to get out!"

Kurogiri materialized next to Izuku. "We need to retreat, Tomura Shigaraki."

"No way!" Tomuar was throwing another tantrum. "The final Boss is right there! I'm gonna clear the level."

Izuku knew better than to argue with Tomura when he was in this state. He just shoved the older boy towards Kurogiri, who was opening another Warp gate. "Comet! It's time to go!"

Uraraka zoomed his way, not even bothering to stop on her way to the portal. She just flew through the warp gate.

Izuku prepared to step through the gate as well, but a familiar voice stopped him.

"Deku!"

Izuku turned to look at Bakugo. He was standing quite a ways away, and wasn't attacking in any way. He was just shouting desperately, clutching his injured arm.

"You still haven't explained anything, Deku!"

Izuku couldn't help but laugh. Sure, things didn't go as planned. Sure, Tomura wasn't happy. Sure, none of their official objectives were met. But at least Izuku got to mess with Bakugo's head.

Izuku gave his childhood bully a little wave. "I'll see you later, Kachan."

And with that, he walked through the warp gate and disappeared.


	17. Chapter 17: Uraraka Gets her Gear

**What I should be doing with my Mechanical Engineering Degree: Getting an actual job**

**What I'm actually doing: Figuring out how Uraraka can fly in my hypothetical villain!AU.**

**Sorry this one is posted so late in the day. I was at my Grandmother's funeral and that plus the receptions took basically the entire day.**

* * *

By the time Uraraka had been with the League for two weeks, she'd acquired a decent understanding of the status quo. All For One (also known as Sensei or Master) didn't actually show his face, but gave instructions through a TV in the bar area. Kurogiri was supposedly the adult in the house, but usually just tended the bar and left the others to their own devices, only stepping in when physical fights broke out. Shigaraki was arrogant, confrontational, and obsessed with video games. Izuku was… quiet, understanding, and probably didn't want to be here any more than she did. She would have preferred to spend more time with him, but he was constantly busy doing something else on All For One or Shigaraki's orders, or else was shut up in his room.

He did seek her out the day after they first met, but the conversations was rather… unusual.

"_Oh, Uraraka, I have something important to ask you!" Izuku ran up to her in the bar._

"_What is it?" she asked._

"_What's your quirk?"_

_Uraraka frowned. She knew that Izuku was self-conscious about being quirkless, so she didn't want to wave her incredibly useful quirk in front of his face. "It's called Zero Gravity."_

"_Wow! How does it work?" _

_Sheepishly, she showed him her hands. "You see those discolored pads on my fingertips? If I touch an object with them I can can make it float."_

"_Do you force things to hover or just take away their gravity? Can you remove the effects, or does it work on a time-release system? What are the drawbacks, if any? Is it automatic or can you turn it on and off? No, it can't be automatic since you'd probably handle things oddly if it was, and you aren't careful with what you touch the way Tomura-nii is…"_

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Uraraka waved her hands wildly, breaking off Izuku's muttering. "I didn't quite catch all that. Could you repeat the question?"_

"_Oh! Sorry." Izuku pulled out a notebook and pen. "Does your quirk automatically affect anything you touch, or do you have to consciously use it?"_

"_It doesn't affect everything I touch, if that's what you're asking. I can control what I use it on."_

_Izuku scribbled a little in the notebook. "Okay, now does the effect stay on the object forever, for a set amount of time, or until you remove the effect yourself?"_

"_Ah… I can release things from my quirk, but I don't know if there's a set time limit or anything like that…"_

_Izuku nodded and scribbled some more. "Do you actually make things float, or do you just remove the effect of gravity?"_

_Uraraka blinked. "I'm sorry, I still don't get what you're asking."_

_Izuku set down the notebook to explain. "Let's say you used your quirk on something that was sitting on the ground or a table. Would it lift up and hover in the air, or would it stay where it was?"_

_Uraraka frowned. She hadn't realized until just now, but she didn't know how her quirk actually worked. She noticed an empty glass next to her, so she grabbed it to conduct a quick test. She placed it on the bar between herself and Izuku, activating her quirk just before taking her hand away._

_The glass didn't move._

_Izuku picked up the glass and released it a few inches above the bar. It didn't fall, and just floated in the air where he'd let it go. He tapped the rim, and the glass spun in loop-de-loops for a few seconds before slowing to a stop. _

_Uraraka righted the glass again and touched her fingertips together, releasing her quirk. It fell a few inches down to the bar and wobbled a little before settling down, the bottom flat on the bar, held by gravity._

"_So it's just gravity that's affected. The law of inertia still applies as well as the effects of air resistance, so it's probably safe to assume Newton's 2nd and 3rd laws apply as well…" Izuku muttered, scribbling in his notebook again._

"_Uh, Deku? Why are you..."_

_Izuku looked up again. "Does your quirk have any noticeable drawbacks?"_

"_Well, I feel nauseous when I use it too much…"_

_Izuku returned to his scribbling, muttering incomprehensibly. He was tapping his finger on his chin, and nothing Uraraka did pulled him out of his concentration or mumbling._

_After about a minute, Izuku stopped mumbling, sat up, and closed his notebook. "Thanks, Uraraka. That was really helpful." He then ran back up the stairs, not even giving Uraraka a chance to question him."_

_She turned to Kurogiri behind the bar. "What was that all about?"_

_Kurogiri continued cleaning a few dirty cocktail glasses. "He was just doing his job."_

Uraraka still didn't know what that line of questioning was about, or even what Izuku's "job" was around here. Then again, Shigaraki didn't do anything but play video games all day, so maybe having a specific job around here was relative. Uraraka hadn't been asked to do anything else since coming here besides occasionally helping Kurogiri with the bar and shopping for groceries, the latter of which she chose to do willingly after realizing Shigaraki only stocked the pantry with cup ramen.

Still, Uraraka was pretty sure she'd found her own place in the status quo. She'd play games with Shigaraki when he nagged her, though he'd constantly complain that she wasn't as good of a player 2 as Izuku. After she told Kurogiri that she regretted giving up her schooling, he'd offered to provide some lesson plans he'd used when training Shigaraki and Izuku, which she reviewed during the day. In the evenings she'd go downstairs and help Kurogiri entertain patrons at the bar.

Icer the course of a day, she'd be lucky to see Izuku twice when he left his room to get food. That is, until today, when he approached her again.

"Hey Uraraka, are you busy?" Izuku asked that morning when she was working on her lessons.

"No, not really." She set down the pencil. She was going through lessons quickly, and would have to ask Kurogiri if he had any more for her soon.

"Good! I've got some gear I'd like you to try out." Izuku looked around. "Where's Kurogiri?"

"Downstairs," Shigaraki provided, not taking his eyes off his video game.

"Thanks, Tomura-nii," Izuku said. "Come on, we need Kurogiri to transport us."

Uraraka frowned, but followed Izuku down the stairs. "Where are we going? What are we doing that we can't do here?"

Izuku didn't answer. He ran up to where Kurogiri was washing dishes and said, "Can you take Uraraka and me to the shooting range?"

Kurogiri turned to Izuku. "Where's your gun?"

"Oh, we're not going there for me," Izuku shook his head. "It's the only place I know with enough open space to try out Uraraka's new equipment."

"What new equipment?" Uraraka asked.

"Trust me, you'll like it," Izuku said. "So Kurogiri?"

Kurogiri wiped his hands on a towel and created a portal in front of Izuku, which the boy proceeded to walk through.

"Don't worry, Miss Uraraka." Kurogiri said. "Izuku knows what he's doing."

Uraraka frowned. _I just wish I knew what all this is about_. Still, she walked through the portal, curious about what was on the other side.

She found herself in a well-lit room with black walls. The ceiling was at least the equivalent of 2 stories up, and the far wall was probably 100 meters away. There was a line of tables with cubicle-like dividers, but otherwise she didn't see any furniture.

Izuku was waiting for her by one of the tables. He was rummaging through cardboard box. "Let's see here… leg strap, air canister, lightweight boots… These should be in your size, I hope you didn't mind me checking your sneakers by the front door… And here's the other one!"

Uraraka walked up to him. "Deku, what are you…"

Izuku popped up, holding two black boots with metallic cylinders attached to the side. "Here, try these on!"

She took the boots. "If I put these on, will you finally explain what's going on?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, sorry," Izuku said.

Uraraka nodded and took off her shoes.

"You see, your quirk reminds me a lot of interstellar travel, and especially of the old space programs," Izuku prattled on. "I did some research and found out that in addition fuel-powered rockets at liftoff, some satellites and small spacecraft would use compressed air for propulsion. They'd be enough to provide some controlled thrust, but didn't use as much fuel as typical rocket engines…"

When Uraraka was finished putting on the new boots - her feet slid easily into the shoes, but she had to fiddle with some black straps attached to the cylinders so they looped around her legs - she interrupted Izuku. "Hold on, how does this apply to my quirk?"

"Well, I was thinking of ways you could take advantage of it in a fight, and maneuverability was one of the best options, but you would need the assistance of custom-made support items."

Uraraka looked at him blankly.

Izuku sighed. "These should allow you to move around when you're using your quirk on yourself."

"You mean like walking and running?" As soon as she said it, she remembered Izuku's earlier words about propulsion. "No, you mean like flying around."

Izuku nodded.

Uraraka took a deep breath. _Okay, that does sound cool._ "So, how do these things work?"

Izuku pulled out a remote controller, the kind you'd use for remote-controlled cars and drones. "Right now each leg operates independently. Use the left joystick to operate the left leg, and the right joystick to operate the other. It operates on a standard bluetooth signal, so once you figure out the configurations you prefer I can program particular buttons to be shortcuts, or even configure a different controller."

Uraraka cautiously took the controller. "Is it safe?"

Izuku fidgeted. "Well, you see…"

"You know what? Don't answer that. "

Izuku grimaced. "So, are you ready to try it out?"

"... I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be."

Izuku reached over and turned a switch on the back of the controller. "Okay, can you use your quirk on yourself for me?"

Uraraka wordlessly touched her arm, making sure her quirk affected all her clothing as well. When she returned both hands to the controller, she gave Izuku a little nod.

"Okay, we're going to start slowly. Start inching both joysticks up, and stop the moment you feel any movement."

Uraraka did as he asked. The moment she pressed up, the whooshing sound of an opening air valve reached her ears. She felt a little pressure from the sides of her shoes, but didn't move yet.

"So lowest setting isn't enough to overcome air resistance. Should have known…." Izuku muttered.

Uraraka pressed up a little more. The pressure on her shoes and the volume of the noise increased, and soon she noticed her body was moving upwards.

"It actually works!" Izuku said.

Uraraka looked down. She wasn't very high up, but the rate she was rising began to increase, even without her pressing any more on the joysticks than she already was. Within a few seconds, she was 20 feet in the air moving a lot faster than she felt comfortable with.

"How do I stop!?" She shouted.

Izuku looked up, somewhat panicked. "Let up on the controls!"

She removed her thumbs from the joysticks, letting them fall back to the neutral position. Her speed didn't increase any more, but it didn't go down by much either.

"I'm still not stopping!" Uraraka looked up and could see the ceiling, approach much faster than she'd like. _I don't want to bash my head up there!_

"Umm.. umm.. I've got it! Kick your feet up! Make your legs point in the direction you're flying."

Uraraka tried to do so with both legs at once, but only made both her upper body and legs reach forward. "I can't!"

"Try one leg at a time!"

She kicked her right leg up. It worked better, but when she tried bringing her left leg up to meet it her body moved horizontal again. The ceiling was coming even closer.

"One's good enough! Kick your right leg up and turn it on!"

_Isn't that how we got in this mess?_ Still, the ceiling was nearly close enough to touch and she was desperate. So, she kicked her right leg up and pushed on the corresponding joystick.

There was pressure in her right foot along with the whooshing noise, but she stopped rising. She was now flying backwards though, and immediately let up on the joystick again.

This time she slowed down to a complete stop. Uraraka breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh my God it actually worked!" Izuku said.

Uraraka was able to touch the ceiling, and used the ridges in the ceiling tiles to turn herself around. It was a very long way down.

"How do I get down?" She asked.

Izuku tapped his chin. "Do you think you can manipulate your legs to point toward the ceiling?"

Uraraka tucked her legs under her, so her feet touched the ceiling. She straightened her legs slowly, like she was standing up instead of hanging upside down from the ceiling.

"Okay, now what?"

"Turn both thrusters on and off quickly. Just enough to cause motion, but not enough to pick up speed. Kind of like you did to stop the ascent." Izuku said.

Uraraka took a deep breath. _I hope this works. _

She pushed both joysticks forward a little and quickly released. The thrusters on her shoes fired up quickly, then shut off. She started floating down, but came to a stop in a few moments.

Izuku nodded. "Do it again, but maybe push them a little harder this time."

Uraraka pushed the joysticks a little farther than before and released again. Again, she floated down a while before coming to a stop, but this time she'd traveled a little farther. She repeated this action over and over until she was only a few feet off the ground.

Izuku came up to her and held out his hand. "Here, let's make sure you land on your feet."

Uraraka took his hand and manipulated her body so her feet were below her again before finally releasing her quirk. Despite her best efforts, she landed on her behind rather than her feet, though that may have had more to do with the motion sickness than just landing wrong.

Izuku kneeled down next to her. "Well, it looks like we need to work on that more…"

"You said it." Uraraka looked down at her feet. The contraption that had caused her so much trouble didn't have a scratch on it. "Hey Deku, how much did this thing cost?"

Izuku blinked. "What? Why do you want to know?"

Uraraka bit her lip. "I… I don't want to be indebted to All For One more than I have to be."

"That's right, you originally joined because of Sensei's money. Well, don't worry about it. The electrical and control components were made from stuff I had lying around, and I got everything else pretty cheaply using my allowance money."

"Wait… You made this?" Uraraka looked the support gear again. Everything was crafted so skilfully, she'd assumed that he'd ordered it from a professional or something.

Izuku nodded. "I've been dabbling in creating support items for a while now, but mostly it's just providing minor adjustments to existing equipment or fixing things that broke. I...guess this would be my first time making something from scratch, but since it was so unique and I wasn't sure how well it would actually work I wanted to make the prototype myself."

Uraraka starred at Izuku. "I didn't know that," she said dumbly.

"Well, considering how much trouble we had just now, it's not even close to being ready for the field. Now that we've proven the basic concept works, I can ask a supplier I know to design better versions of these…"

"No, don't bother." Uraraka shook her head. "I'd much rather you just tweak these, if you can." _I don't want you spending any more money on me than you have to._

Izuku looked surprised. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Besides, the biggest problem we encountered didn't have to do with how they worked, but rather how I used them. Even if you were to order a perfect version of these, it'd still be hard for me to get the hang of them. This way, at least I'm able to start practicing right away."

Izuku bit his lip. "If you're sure… But let me know if you have any recommendations on how to improve them."

"Of course."

* * *

**I wish I'd had the time to look through some of my old textbooks and actually do the math to figure out how Izuku would have programmed the controls. BTW, I'm imagining the air canisters as being like the ones used in SodaStream and other machines to carbonate water at home.**


	18. Chapter 18: Bonds of the Revolutionaries

**This one is the farthest in the timeline I'll be writing for now. Please read the Author's notes at the end.**

* * *

Izuku woke up to the sound of his door slamming open.

"Big Bro!"

"Izuku!"

He cracked his eyes open. "Eri, Kota, what is it?"

"Big Sis Uraraka made breakfast," Eri said.

"She sent us to get you before it got too cold," Kota explained.

Izuku chuckled. "Message received. I still need to get dressed, so you two should head down and make sure the others don't eat it all."

The two kids nodded and left the room, closing the door behind them. Ever since Eri moved in with the Quirk Revolutionaries, the other members had done everything they could to make the girl more comfortable. Once Izuku rescued Kota from the League, they collectively decided to treat him similarly.

It kind of made the hideout more like a home, and the other members more like family.

Izuku got dressed in his usual stay-at-home clothes, jeans and a T-shirt. Within a few minutes he was descending the stairs to the sound of everyone eating.

Toga was the first to notice him. "Izukun!"

"You made it just in time," Spinner said. "Dabi was about to take the last salmon slice."

"I was not," Dabi protested. "I was just making sure Shoto had gotten his fill."

Shoto rolled his eyes. "Like I told you already, you don't need to baby me."

"I for one think it's cute," Uraraka said. "Dabi may not admit it, but he has a very strong protective instinct."

Eri nodded. "When Uncle Dabi is around, I feel safe knowing he won't let anyone hurt me."

Kota scowled. "Just don't go overboard. I'm not helpless, you know."

"Uh-huh," Dabi reached over to pat Kota on the head. "Just keep telling yourself that, kid."

Kota didn't like that, so he tried to grab Dabi's arm and pin it down. What resulted was more akin to a plafight than an actual brawl, especially since Dabi only used enough force to keep the kid frustrated. The whole table, as well as Izuku, erupted into laughter.

Uraraka was the only one interested in breaking them up. "Come on guys, save that for training. Sit down so we can finish eating, then you can wrestle."

Izuku sat down at the last open chair, between Eri and Shoto. Uraraka had prepared a very traditional breakfast with rice, miso soup, grilled salmon, natto, and tamagoyaki. Most of the others were halfway through the food, and Toga was already reaching for seconds. If he didn't start eating soon, Izuku wouldn't get to eat his fill. He dug in with gusto.

A few minutes later, Spinner looked up from his food and asked, "What's on our schedule for today?"

"Well, that all depends on what the bossman wants," Dabi turned to Izuku expectantly.

"I still don't like being called that." Despite the fact that everyone turned to Izuku for the hard decisions, he didn't see himself as the leader of their group. He thinks of the Quirk Revolutionaries as a group of people united by a common goal, and he just happens to be the strategizer. "Nonetheless, I do have some recommendations for training. Dabi, Shoto, you both need to work on your hand-to-hand combat abilities without your quirks."

Shoto frowned. "Why would we need to work on that?"

"Your quirks are very powerful, but you may not always be in an environment where you can use them effectively," Izuku explained. "I'll admit that it is more likely to happen to Dabi than you, but it can still happen."

Shoto chewed on a clump of rice, thoughtful. "You have a point. If we end up against someone like Mr. Aizawa, I wouldn't be able to use my ice or my fire."

Izuku nodded. "I'll work with you guys tomorrow, but Spinner already knows the basics and I'd like to work with Eri a little bit."

"Want me to help too, Izukun?" Toga asked.

Izuku put a piece of fish in his mouth, considering Toga's offer. "Maybe… but it would be a good idea for you to go on a supply run first. Do we need anything around the house?"

"We're almost out of groceries," Uraraka said. "I'll come up with a list of essentials once we've cleaned up."

"Last night I noticed the laundry detergent was almost gone," Izuku admitted. "Add that to the list."

Eri fidgeted in her seat. "Um, can I ask for something selfish?"

"Of course cutie, you can ask us for anything," Toga gave a toothy smile that would have been creepy in any other setting.

"Ca-Can I get another stuffed toy?" Eri asked. "Kota keeps borrowing Mr. Bunny at night. I don't mind, but I miss cuddling with something so soft. Pillows just aren't the same."

Kota's face was bright red. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that!"

Eri looked at Kota in surprise. "Really? Why?"

Koda slid down in his seat. "It's embarrassing! Only babies sleep with stuffed animals."

"That's not true," Uraraka said. "It's perfectly alright if you want your favorite toy's comfort when you sleep."

Shoto nodded. "It's not exactly the same thing, but I had a baby blanket my mom made for me that I slept with until I was 12. Even then I only stopped because it got burned."

Dabi narrowed his eyes. "Expect to be interrogated on that incident later, Shoto. Anyway, would you mind running by a clothing store, Toga? Most of my favorite shirts have been damaged in practice."

"Can do!" Toga cheared.

"Since we're getting more groceries, does anybody have a specific food they want in the near future?" Uraraka asked. "I can't make any promises, but I'll try and make it."

Shoto looked up. "I really like Soba."

"It's not healthy to eat the same dish every meal, Shoto." Spinner said.

Dabi rolled his eyes. "I'm more of a pizza guy. Uraraka doesn't have to cook us meals every day, you know."

"But I want to," Uraraka insisted.

Izuku noticed Eri was tapping her chin. "Do you have something specific you want to eat, Eri?"

"Um… Yes, but I can't remember the name." Eri bit her lip. "I think someone made it for me before. It had fried rice and egg, and a smiley face in red sauce…"

"Omurice?" Kota asked.

"Yes! That's it!" Eri nodded. "I'd really like to have some Omurice again!"

Izuku smiled at the girl. "I'm sure that can be arranged."

"I'll just have to add ketchup to the shopping list," Uraraka said.

"Thank you!" Eri squealed.

Kota snorted. "I think these guys are spoiling you, Eri."

_Can't argue with that_, Izuku thought.

* * *

**Okay guys, since we're getting close to the end I'm going to ask for some help.**

**This past month has basically been practice for me to write constantly and consistently. If you're familiar with NaNoWriMo, this was kind of a test run. Basically, I tried to get something to publish every day without worrying about continuity issues or writing in order. My intention has always been to go back at a later day and republish these as a coherent longfic, with everything in chronological order and all inconsistencies fixed. I'm planning on participating in NaNoWriMo next month, but I do plan on coming back to this during December to republish it coherently. **

**Before I can do that, I need your help: Please tell me what specific issues you see with this fic. Any inconsistencies, things that need to be explained, stuff you want to see more of. I already have a running list of things I plan to include/fix in my rewrite/final edit, but i want you guys to tell me what else I need to add. Please leave these suggestions in the comments. **

**Constructive critique is always appreciated. I'm seriously considering publishing some original work, so I need to know where I need to improve.**


	19. Chapter 19: The Sports Festival

**I'm somewhat frustrated since I ended up doing a lot more "showing" than "telling" during this chapter, but that's half choosing to follow a spectator rather than a student and half just the way Izuku thinks. When I do the rewrite, I'll probably do the first two events from Shoto's POV. Ah well. As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.**

* * *

The day of the UA Sports Festival, Izuku made the executive decision to watch the event in person. He justified it to Uraraka by saying he wanted to observe contestants the cameras might not focus on, but in reality it was to avoid Tomura for a while. His brother had become insufferable since the failed attack on the USJ, especially since he blamed Izuku for the failure.

To be fair it had been Izuku's plan, but he really didn't need to be around a grouching Tomura when his failure against Kachan was still fresh.

Still, this was a wonderful opportunity. He'd bought tickets at the last minute so he was stuck in the nosebleeds, but that was just fine with Izuku. He had some decent goggles, and he was less likely to be recognized that way. He wasn't wearing much of a disguise - just a green hoodie and some sunglasses - and was going to be relying on his inconspicuousness to keep the authorities off his back. He did have his gun and a knife hidden in his hoodie, but he'd rather not use them. He was able to get to his seat without incident, so the disguise must be doing some good.

The festival took place over the course of 3 days, one for each grade. Usually the volume of spectators gradually increased each day, with the 1st years attracting the least amount of people, but this year more people showed up on the 1st day than usual. This didn't affect Izuku, but he did wonder whether it was because of his attack on class 1-A.

It was likely that the world was expecting more from that class now, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Anyway, the opening ceremonies were pretty much the same as every year. As soon as the announcer invited Kachan up to give the oath, Izuku knew that his former bully was going to do something ridiculous. He did feel somewhat vindicated when all the other students yelled at Kachan, so that was a plus.

The first event was an obstacle course. Izuku took note of a few quirks being used creatively - Mineta's strategy certainly wasn't very sporting, but one couldn't argue its effectiveness - but overall was underwhelmed by the display. He already knew a lot about the capabilities of 1-A, and most of the other classes were not going out of their way to show off. Izuku wondered if this was an actual strategy or if they just didn't have that impressive abilities.

_Well, they are only 1st years. They have 3 years of schooling to get through before they'd be expected to act like pros._

The final obstacle was a minefield. All of the students either walked around them carefully or used their quirks to glide across, which was pretty standard reaction. Izuku kind of wished there were more creative students among them, since controlled explosions could be very useful, if you were daring enough. Even Kachan, who should know better than anyone else how to use explosions, didn't capitalize on the mindfield's potential. He just used his own explosions to fly over the mines, not daring to touch them.

As such, it wasn't surprising when the student with the most powerful quirk - Todoroki - won the race, with Kachan as a close second. Izuku was happy to see his old rival humiliated, but was still disappointed the first event ended without anything interesting.

The second event was a cavalry battle. Izuku had high hopes for this one, since he could gauge the student's teamwork. An individual hero was only as powerful as their quirks and their training, but a team could fly high or fail spectacularly depending on the group dynamics. Izuku could get all the information he wanted on quirks and individual stats using the school's database, but he could only judge the future heroes' teamwork by watching events like this. The way students chose teams might also showcase their analytical skills, but he didn't have high hopes on that front.

They were only 1st years, after all. He'd figured out a long time ago that people with strong quirks usually only focused on their own abilities and didn't consider how they could work with other quirks. UA did a decent job of breaking them out of that habit, but it took time.

Izuku tapped his pen on the edge of his notebook. _I wonder what it would be like if I could give these future heroes tips on working together._

He quickly pushed that thought out of his mind and focused on the cavalry battle. No point in dwelling on what-ifs.

Izuku was pleasantly surprised by the cavalry battle. With 1-B's poor performance in the obstical course he'd dismissed them, but both they and a few gen-ed kids were the true stars of this event. True, both Kachan's team and the group supporting Todoroki remained in the top two spots the entire time, but the other top spots were a fierce battle between the rest of 1-A, a few noteworthy 1-B teams, and this one group in complete synergy headed by a gen-ed student. The top four ended up being team Todoroki, team Bakugo, the team headed by Monoma from 1-B, and the group with that tired-looking gen-ed student named Shinsou.

_Looks like the 1-B students deliberately hid their powers to give themselves an edge_, Izuku thought. _Not a bad strategy, but it can only be used once and defeats the publicity purpose of the sports festival. Then again, they're getting 2 more chances to show off like this over the course of their high school career, and not many people usually watch the 1st years. Plus, the one-on-one battles are where individuals can shine so they could have been counting on getting to that point which wasn't smart since only 16 students get that far…_

"Uh, you okay kid?" a nearby man asked. "You're muttering to yourself."

Izuku jumped. "Oh, I'm so sorry! It's an old habit! My teacher and brother keep telling me to stop it, but it always slips out when I'm concentrating or overly enthusiastic about something."

The man laughed. "It's fine, kid. I was just worried about you."

_I should probably get away for a while; he might try to start a conversation and ask questions. _"Hey, mind letting me out? We should have some time until the next event and I want to beat the line to the bathroom."

The man graciously let Izuku out of the stadium row. Izuku quickly gathered his stuff - just a few spare notebooks, his laptop, and his wallet shoved in a backpack - and headed down the stairs, looking for a secluded place he could review his notes.

_I need to look back over my stats on those 1-B students. I should also check the school's database for info on that gen-ed student… I shouldn't have focussed only on the hero courses; there's usually a few kids from gen-ed who get bumped up to heroics by the end of the year. _

The closest bathroom was jam-packed - apparently, everyone else was taking advantage of the break before the main event. The same was true for the bathroom on the next floor down, and the next one. Izuku kept descending, looking for somewhere he could work in peace. Even an unlocked supply closet would be fine, but he didn't see any of those.

Eventually, Izuku reached the bottom of the stadium, where he'd entered. He still didn't have a place to work where nobody would see what he was doing. He did see another set of stairs, going even further under the seats.

_Maybe there will be less people down there_, Izuku thought as he walked down the new staircase.

He was right; there were significantly less people down there. The dark hallway would have looked abandoned if it wasn't so clean. It reminded Izuku of the setting in a horror game, where the player was led into a false sense of security before the monster popped up in a jumpscare. There wasn't enough light for him to read his notes, but his phone had a flashlight and his laptop was fully charged.

Izuku turned a corner and sat on the floor, firing up his laptop and pulling out his notes. The light from the screen gave him just enough for him to make out his handwriting, but only when he tilted the notebook a certain way. He found the notes on 1-B as quickly as he could, but gave up after a while since he could get the same information on his computer anyway. He had a trojan horse installed on the school's database, so it didn't take much for him to hack into it again.

He was still shuffling through the information he needed - _Mind Control certainly explains how that one team was able to be in perfect sync_ \- when he heard a raised voice echoing along the hallway.

"You need to stop this childish rebellion! Use the quirk I gave you already!"

A much softer voice replied, but Izuku wasn't able to catch what was said.

"Don't you dare talk back to me, boy!"

_That's Endeavour_, Izuku realised. He put away his laptop and stood up. _What's Endeavour doing yelling at someone at UA's sport's festival?_

Izuku knew he should have just left. He had all the information he needed. Endeavour was a pro hero, and wouldn't hesitate to arrest someone like Izuku, especially after the role he played in the USJ attack. It would be in his best interest to just leave and blend back in with the crowd.

Without even thinking about it, Izuku's feet moved, taking him down the hall in the direction of Endeavour's booming voice.

"You are my successor, Shoto!" Endeavour said. "You were born with both powers in order to surpass All Might!"

"I will not be what you want me to be." The softer voice replied.

Izuku peaked around the corner. Endevor's back took up most of his view, but he could also see a familiar boy with two-toned hair.

_Why is Endeavour shouting at his son Shoto?_

"I am your father, and you will do what I tell you!" Endeavour shouted.

Shoto's face was impassive, a stark contrast to his father's emotional outbursts. "You've controlled everything in my life. How long I have to spend training, who I get to spend time with, even what I eat. My school and my career path were both decided for me, as your masterpiece. You may be able to control all of those things, but you don't get to decide how I use my power. I will become a hero without using my fire, just to prove that I can."

Endeavour stormed off, walking through a doorway behind Shoto. "You won't make it that far. You need my fire, it's the only way you'll surpass All Might."

"I don't care about surpassing All Might. I just want to get away from you."

Endeavour continued to stomp off, leaving Shoto in the darkened hallway.

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief.

"Who's there?"

Izuku's breath caught. _Did he hear me?_

Shoto walked forward and turned the corner, staring at Izuku. "I don't think anybody but the contestants are supposed to be here."

"R-Realy?" Izuku laughed, feigning innocence. "I'm sorry, I just got lost looking for a bathroom…"

"It's fine." Shoto's face remained impassive, not giving Izuku any hint as to whether he was suspicious of not.

Izuku tapped his fingertips together. Common sense said that he should leave well enough alone, but… "It sounds like you two were having an argument. Do you want to talk about it?"

Shoto turned away. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself over."

"Oh, okay."

The hallway was silent for a few minutes, until Shoto spoke up. "I refuse to use my fire in battle. He doesn't like that, since I'm supposed to be his successor."

Izuku frowned. He had noticed that Shoto hadn't used the fire half of his quirk in either the USJ or this Sport's festival, but he hadn't thought about it much. He figured it was because ice could be more versatile, it could contain a villain without much injury, or just personal preference in training. He didn't realize it was a conscious, controversial decision. "Why don't you want to use your fire?"

"It's his quirk."

_So, is it some family trouble?_ Izuku wondered.

Shoto sighed. "I hate my father. He's obsessed with surpassing All Might, but knows that's not possible with his own limitations. So, he decided to train me to do it for him. He's been training me with my quirk since I was four years old."

Izuku sucked in his breath. _Wow, I thought Endeavour was terrible for how he used excessive force on low-level villains, but this…_

"Mom tried to protect me, but… It was too much. She hated him, hated being in that house, and eventually reached a breaking point." Shoto touched his face, where an ugly, red scar marred his features. "She said my left side was unightly, that it reminded her of him, so she took the tea kettle and…" Shoto didn't finish his sentence, but he didn't have to.

_Fuck_. "Do you hate your mother, for doing that to you?"

Shoto stopped, contemplating Izuku's question. "No, no I don't think I do." He sounded surprised, like he'd only just figured that out. "I understand that it wasn't really her fault, that my father drove her to that point. Plus, she was always trying to protect me. I guess it's not fair to hate her for one act of anger, especially compared to the years of abuse we've both suffered under my father."

Izuku thought about the people in his own life. Sure, Tomura and Sensei both were cruel to him at times, but compared to the years of bullying he received from Kachan… It wasn't that bad, right?

_Right?_

Well, at least he still had some good times with Tomura-nii, while he couldn't remember why he put up with Kachan for so long anyway.

_Stop thinking about that._ "I'm really sorry all that happened to you. I can understand why you don't want to use your fire, but are you sure you want to keep handicapping yourself?"

Shoto frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, most quirks dealing with extreme temperatures have a side effect on the user's body temperature. I know that Endeavour gets overheated if he's pushed too far, and I've noticed your body was accumulating ice during the last two events. I imagine that using both powers would allow you to keep your body temperature under control."

"... You're not wrong. That is the reason my father deliberately married a woman with an ice quirk."

"Exactly!" Izuku nodded. "I know you hate your father, but I'm sure there are less self-destructive ways to get back at him."

Shoto didn't say anything.

"I'll tell you what," Izuku pulled out his phone. "How about we exchange numbers? I'd like to help you get away from your father, if I can."

Shoto pulled out his own phone, firing off a string of digits Izuku added to his contacts under the name "Shoto Todoroki." He then sent a text to his new contact.

_Me: Hi! I'm Izuku Midoriya. _

_Me: Go ahead and add my contact info._

Shoto's phone vibrated and he read the text. "So… Your name is Izuku?"

"Yep! Feel free to text me at any time. I'm homeschooled, so you don't need to worry about interrupting me during class."

Shoto nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." He pocketed the phone again. "I… Well, thank you for listening. It was nice to finally get that all off my chest."

"Well, isn't that what friends are for?"

"Friends…" Shoto frowned. "I wouldn't know. I never got the chance to interact with kids my own age growing up… and I think most of my classmates are scared of me."

There was a pang in Izuku's chest. "I kind of get where you're coming from. Until about a year ago, I hadn't interacted with anyone other than the people in my house very much. It's nice to have a friend on the outside."

An announcement rang out through the stadium. Izuku couldn't hear the exact words due to the echo, but he was sure the next event was about to start.

"Looks like I need to get to my seat if I want to see the action, and you need to ge ready for your fight." Izuku started walking towards the lit doorway, but thought of something else he wanted to say.

He turned around, and although Shoto's features were obscured by shadows, Izuku noticed how his body stiffened.

"By the way, would you do me a favor and kick Katsuki Bakugo's ass?" Izuku asked. "He doesn't deserve to be a hero."

Shoto walked forward. When the light reached his face, Izuku noticed how determined he was. "I'll do that, so long as you promise to do everything in your power to help me get revenge on my father." His eyes bore into Izuku's own. "Including whatever you used to get into the USJ."

Izuku froze. _He recognized me! _

Shoto was up the stairs and on his way to his classmates before Izuku could even think of stopping him.

Izuku took a deep breath. _It's fine. If he warns the heroes, I'll just hide until I can go home._

Still, he couldn't stop looking over his shoulder every other minute as he walked back to his nosebleed seats.

He continued to worry about who Shoto might tell. That is, until the Final Battle of the 1st year's tournament, when Shoto Todoroki won 1st place by using a giant fire blast against Katsuki Bakugo.

* * *

The 2nd years weren't particularly impressive. Izuku took a few notes on how those students had developed since the year before, but otherwise considered the whole day a waste. He should have stayed at home and helped Uraraka train her quirk.

The 3rd years were also more of the same, with one key exception.

Mirio Togata.

Izuku already knew to keep an eye out for the big three thanks to web gossip. Tamaki Amajiki fell out of the running early on (Izuku suspected it was stage fright) and Nejire Hado exhausted herself in the first round of the tournament, but Mirio Togata continued to distinguish himself.

Izuku knew that Mirio participated in a work study that would have improved his fighting abilities, but to go through such a dramatic growth…

_No, this isn't natural. Something else is going on._

And so, Izuku watched Mirio closely. Marked his stats, his changes, his moves. Eventually it became clear that it was mostly Mirio's physical strength that had improved so drastically. Sure, his technique and super moves had evolved, but it was his strength that gave him the edge in all these structured events.

During the final battle, Mirio didn't even use his permutation quirk, just his fists. It was like watching a pro boxer or even…

_All Might._

Izuku was watching every detail of Mirio's fights, so he was probably the only person who picked up on the faded, yellow energy surrounding his entire body. It shone just a little bit brighter when he was about to attack, and followed him even as he perminated through things. I crackled like lightning, and appeared to be the source of this new strength.

During the final match of the tournament, Mirio's opponent was almost able to push him out of bounds, but the yellow energy grew brighter than ever before, focusing around his arms. Mirio released the energy in a magnificent punch strong enough to not only send the other fighter out of bounds, but produce a wind blast that affected the entire stadium.

_There is no way that was the result of normal strength training._

Izuku continued to analyze Mirio as he stepped off the stage, nursing a mysteriously broken arm. He noticed a spinely, blond man approached the boy and embraced him. It could be a congratulatory hug from a proud relative, but their features were too different to be a close relation.

Izuku taped his chin. _What are you hiding, Mirio Togata?_

* * *

Izuku locked himself in his room for three days following the sports festival. Both Kurogiri and Uraraka tried to drag him out to at least eat, but had to leave plates of food outside his door when he wouldn't budge. Even Tomura was worried, from what Izuku could make out through his door.

Still, he didn't regret it. Izuku couldn't handle distractions right now. He had some idea where he went wrong with the USJ incident - essentially, underestimating the students because they were only first years - but the mystery of Mirio Togata was the issue he spent most of his time on.

First he looked through the boy's history - every grade, every sports festival, every status update from his time at the Nighteye agency - but couldn't find any clues. He went through family history and their connections - the blond man from the sports festival wasn't anywhere close on the family tree - but still came up with nothing. No predisposition to mutation quirks, no connections to questionable experiments, no support personnel who may have snuck something in.

_It's like Mirio Togata spontaneously developed another quirk._

Izuku was about to contact Sensei and ask if he'd given a UA student another quirk without telling anyone when he remembered there was another person capable of passing on a quirk.

_Could it be…?_

His research then pivoted from finding every detail about Mirio Togata's life to uncovering a certain Pro Hero's secrets. He found data on the number of incidents resolved by each hero per year. Most fans on the hero forums attributed the sudden data change six years ago to lack of media coverage, but Izuku knew better. He watched hundreds of amateur videos on a particular hero to compare the forces of a punch. He catalogued everything from more than six years ago to present day and looked for trends.

What he found was so obvious he should have noticed it a long time ago. He would have, if he hadn't been deliberately avoiding the relevant information.

All Might's time doing hero work had been steadily decreasing over the last five years, but his overall strength had remained the same until 10 months ago. Then, both his time as a hero and his overall strength started decreasing rapidly.

Combine that with what Izuku had noticed at the sports festival, as well as their mutual connection to the Nighteye agency, and there was only one conclusion to be made.

Izuku wrote it in his notebook, clear, bold letters describing a world-shattering truth:

_Mirio Togata has inherited One For All from All Might._

Izuku leaned back and took a deep breath. All Might had passed on his power, and Mirio Togata would one day fight All For One.

_I should tell Sensei. He needs to know._

Izuku knew this was true. If Sensei found out that Izuku had figured this out and didn't share the information, he'd be mad. All For One had been gravely injured in his fight against the eighth user, so he needs to start preparing now if he has any hope of surviving the ninth.

But… For some reason, Izuku didn't want to share this. It was a piece of information he'd slaved to uncover, and he didn't want to give it up just yet. This information gave him a miniscule amount of power over All For One, and he wanted to savor it.

Or maybe it was something else.

Whatever the reason was, Izuku closed his notebook, put it up in his desk, and left to eat dinner with Uraraka, putting the new discovery out of his mind.


	20. Chapter 20: Analyst's Awakening

**This one didn't do nearly as much for Izuku's development as I'd hoped, but it's a start. I'll have to expand on what exactly Izuku was doing for All For One in the rewrite. Ah well. Enjoy!**

* * *

A few months after Izuku turned 8, he woke up to the sound of All For One giving Tomura a lesson.

"When our men encounter the local heroes, what can they do to ensure the mission can still succeed?" All For One asked.

Izuku had his head down as he padded towards the kitchen, but he did notice Tomura's frustration with the question.

"Why can't they just beat the heroes?" Tomura asked. "That's what I would do. Then, they'll have no problem getting the stolen goods back here."

Izuku grabbed a box of breakfast cereal and poured it in a bowl. It wasn't his preferred breakfast, and it certainly wasn't healthy, but it was all he could do by himself right now. Kurogiri usually had something waiting for both him and Tomura in the morning, but the warp villain was away on a mission today.

"That would be ideal," All For One instructed, "but not a guarantee. Not every villain you work with will be as gifted as you, Tomura. Plus, the point of this mission isn't really the stolen goods."

Tomura scratched his neck. "Then what _is_ the point?"

"To collect information," All For One explained.

Izuku finished preparing his cereal and tried to sneak back to his room. He may have gotten used to living in this house, but he still didn't like being around All For One.

Unfortunately, Tomura noticed him. "Oh, you're up Izuku. Come sit down, Sensei's just giving me a lesson."

Izuku weighed his options. He really didn't want to spend more time in the same room as All For One, but to leave now would not only be admitting this fact, but incredibly rude. Eventually, he sat down at the table, across from Tomura and hopefully out of All For One's direct sightline.

He focused on his breakfast while the other two renewed their conversation.

"Now Tomura, do you understand why getting the information could be more important than defeating a few heroes?"

"It's so we can plan future operations," Tomura said. "But I just don't get why we have to do all this planning! Can't we just throw our strongest players at the heroes and be done with it?"

All For One chuckled. "That would be ideal, yes, but you won't be able to use strong people all the time. Sometimes they'll get unlucky and face a hero that is strong against their weakness, sometimes they'll have other obligations, sometimes they'll just be injured or tired."

Tomura crossed his arms. "I'll ever be good at planning things like this. Can't you just do all the planning for me?"

"I would like to, but the day will come when you'll need to do things for yourself, Tomura."

"Well, I still don't get how more information means better planning. How could I even know what information to use?"

Izuku looked up. "Tomura-nii, I know you can figure out what information you would need. I've seen you do it before."

Both Tomura and All For One turned to look at him.

"What do you mean by that?" Tomura asked.

"Um…" Izuku squirmed under All For One's piercing gaze. "You know when you get stuck on a level or a dungeon and you look at online forums for tips on how to beat it? Well, you always know not to use information for another game or dungeon, and you'll go back and gather the materials or equipment you need to finish the level."

Tomura tilted his head. "I never thought about it that way. I guess preparing for a real-life mission isn't that different from preparing for a quest."

"You're right," All For One considered Izuku. "Tell me, do you have any suggestions on how we can ensure information gets passed on to us even if our men get captured by the heroes?"

Izuku looked down at his bowl, rubbing his finger against the side. He still didn't feel comfortable talking to All For One, but now that he'd opened his big mouth he had to see this through to the end. "Well, the most obvious way is for the men to send us a message as soon as they get it, either by text or by email. They wouldn't be able to do it while fighting though, so I'm assuming they either get the information before they encounter the heroes or there are enough men in the team to let one of them avoid fighting for a few minutes. If the information is based on what they see or hear, you could just put hidden cameras or bugs on their clothes, but I'm not sure how practical that would be since those devices are likely expensive..."

"Don't worry about things like that, we'll determine the practicality of a plan later," All For One said.

"O-Okay, then." Izuku struggled to meet All For One's eyes. "If you don't want the authorities to know that you have the information, then you can instruct the men to destroy the cameras if they get caught in a fight. If the information you need has to be transferred physically, like a USB or a letter, then set up multiple drop points where it can be stored if they get caught up in battle, though they'll have to be careful and make sure nobody sees them leave it at the drop point…" Izuku's voice lowered into a mumble by the end. He ran out of ideas

"Those are all very good ideas, Izuku. Maybe you can help Tomura plan future operations."

Warmth blossomed in Izuku's chest at the praise. He focused on the encouraging smile Tomura was giving him.

"Yeah! You're better at strategy games than me, so that makes sense." Tomura said. "I'll still be the RPG leader, but you'll handle all the boring planning for me."

Izuku beamed. "I'll be happy to help you, Tomura-nii."

"You both should know that there's a lot more that goes into planning operations," All For One reminded them. "You need to be able to account for the strengths and weaknesses of both your team members and your opponents…"

Izuku's breath caught. "Hold on, let me go grab something."

He ran back to his room and returned holding a notebook to his chest.

"I… I've been doing quirk analysis." Izuku opened the book. "Most of this stuff is about Tomura's or Kurogiri's quirks, but I also added some stuff about famous heroes I saw on the TV. I used to have more books like these, before…" He chose not to finish that sentence, instead pushing the book towards the others.

All For One picked it up. "These are… surprisingly detailed." He frowned. "You've noticed quite a bit."

Izuku shifted his weight nervously as All For One turned the pages, reading quietly. Tomura looked over his Sensei's shoulder a little, but soon lost interest and left for the kitchen.

Eventually, All For One closed the book and handed it back to Izuku. "Izuku Midoriya, do you think you can do more analysis like this for me? On both heroes and villains?"

"Um, I guess so." Izuku took the book and held it to his chest. "I'd need to see some footage of them fighting or using their quirks, and I can't promise to get that much detail right away, but I should be able to do something."

"Good." All for one reached over and patted Izuku's head. "I'll be looking forward to whatever you can contribute, Izuku. If you keep it up, you'll be able to earn your own quirk very soon."

And so, the villain Analyst was born.


	21. Chapter 21: Bakugo's Testimony

**I'm less sure about where this one fits in the timeline, but I think it happens at the end of the internships or around the Sports Festival arc. I'm leaning towards the end of internship arc, since I can then have Iida say something that prompts a response from Bakugo which is... this. As always, constructive critique is appreciated.**

* * *

If Bakugo was being honest with himself, he should have done this a long time ago. As soon as he was released from the hospital after the USJ, he should have gone straight to a teacher or policeman. Hell, he should have flagged down somebody before the ambulance carted him away.

But he didn't, and it was eating him up inside.

Oh sure, he had plenty of excuses lined up: he wanted to make sure he wasn't mistaken, he wanted to know what led up to this point, he was paying respect to Auntie Inko's feelings. It was all bullshit and he knew it.

Izuku Midoriya was one of the villains that attacked the USJ, and Bakugo was too ashamed to tell anyone.

Well, today he was going to fix that.

When the final bell rang to release them from class, Bakugo didn't turn right at the door like he normally does. He turned left, ignored Shitty Hair's questions about where he was going, and walked up to the teacher's lounge. He should be able to find either Mr. Aizawa or All Might there, or at least another teacher that could tell him where to go.

When he opened the door, he saw not either of the teachers he was looking for but that show-off 3rd year that kept shadowing All Might.

"Oh hello!" Mirio Togata - yeah, that was his name, don't ask how Bakugou was able to remember that one - said. "Are you looking for someone?"

_The hell are you doing here?_ "Not that it's any of your business, But I'm looking for All Might and Mr. Aizawa."

Mirio looked nervous. "Oh, well Mr. Aizawa is probably grading papers somewhere. Have you tried his homeroom?"

"I'm _in_ his homeroom, genius."

A tall, sickly-looking, thin man in loose clothes walked in through the other door. "Sorry to keep you waiting, young Togata… Oh, hello young Bakugo! What are you doing here?"

Bakugo could have sworn he knew all the teachers, but he didn't recognize this guy. "Who are…?"

Bakugo caught sight of the man's eyes and froze. He knew those eyes; he'd spent most of his childhood idolizing a man with those eyes.

"All Might?" Bakugo asked.

The thin man - All Might - coughed into his hand. "What? I've got no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb." Bakugo said. "I'm not as stupid as the rest of this school."

All Might sighed. "Yes, it's me. I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about my true form."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Bakugo shrugged. "It's not the weirdest thing I've seen since I started going here." _My childhood friend coming back from the dead as a villain gets that honor._

"What did you want to talk to All Might about?" Mirio asked, breaking the tension surrounding the sudden reveal.

Bakugo scowled again. "It's not something a nosey 3rd year needs to know."

All Might sighed. "Young Togata, would you mind getting Aizawa? He's likely in the office."

Mirio looked at both All Might and Bakugo for a couple of seconds, then nodded and left the room.

All Might sat in one of the chairs. "What did you want to speak to me about, young Bakugo?"

Bakugo looked down at the floor. He'd told himself he was going to do this, but now the words just wouldn't come. "It's… about the USJ incident."

"I… see." All Might coughed once again. "If you're disturbed by what you saw and experienced, I'm sure the school would be able to provide trained therapists..."

"I'm not _weak_," Bakugo growled.

"There's no shame in asking for help, especially for things like that."

"I don't need a shrink!" Bakugo shook his head. He was getting off topic. "I need to… Look, I recognized one of the villains."

"Oh." All Might put his hands in his lap. "Why didn't you tell us or the police anything earlier?"

Bakugo rubbed his arm. The spot where Izuku had shot him was starting to ache, despite being mostly healed. "Things were chaotic that day, and then I was at the hospital… Look, I'm here telling you now. Isn't that enough?"

"Yes, of course." All Might nodded. "You're doing the right thing."

_Well, it's now or never._ "Do you remember that villain with green hair? The one who shot me?"

"Yes. He came to watch my battle with the Nomu near the end. I noticed that he was extremely young, no older than you 1st years. From the way he was speaking to the others, it appeared to me that he was one of the leaders."

"His real name is Izuku Midoriya, and everyone thought he died 8 years ago."

All Might leaned forward. "Are you certain? How do you know this?"

"I recognized him," Bakugo explained. "He kept calling me by my childhood nickname, and after I saw his face and called him by his own nickname he all but confirmed it."

"I'm so sorry, my boy." All Might gave Bakugo a sympathetic look. "I'm guessing he was a friend?"

"Sort of? It's complicated." Bakugo shifted nervously. "Our moms were close, and we went to school together so I guess we didn't have much choice but to be friends. But…"

"But?"

"We drifted apart after our quirks came in. You know how powerful my quirk is, and Deku… well… he's quirkless."

All Might frowned. "Deku?"

"What we used to call Izuku. It was…" _It was how I used to make fun of him._

All Might, luckily, didn't dig into that. "You said he was quirkless, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure he didn't have a quirk?"

"Yes?" Bakugo didn't understand where this line of questioning was going. "His mom even took him to a doctor and confirmed it."

All Might frowned. "Are you positive he was still quirkless when you fought him at the USJ?"

"Yes, why wouldn't he be?" Bakugo thought back to his fight with Deku. "He didn't use a quirk while fighting, just some gear he brought with him. And the gun."

All Might sat back, contemplative. "I'm sorry for pressing you, young man. I'm sure this must be hard, knowing that your old friend is a villain."

"Yeah, about that… I think something happened to him. I don't remember all the details of his disappearance, but his apartment burned down the when his mom last saw him and his dad's body was found in the wreckage the next day." Bakugo rubbed his aching arm again. "Then, he shows up 8 years later working with villains and it's just so… _wrong_."

"People can change, young Bakugo." All Might said. "I do agree that something must have happened to him during these last 8 years, but you have to remember that he _chose_ to turn to villainy."

"It's just that… the Deku I knew never would have become a villain. He was determined to be a hero, even without a quirk, even when the whole world said he should give up… he was still stubbornly dreaming of being a hero."

All Might looked… disturbed. "Do you know if there was ever an investigation in young Izuku's disappearance?"

"Yeah. The police were all over the place, and kept bugging my mom and Auntie Inko. That's Deku's mom, by the way." Bakugo thought about that for a second. "Do you think I should tell her?"

"That's your choice, but I don't think that would be a good idea. I can't imagine any mother would want to hear their child turned to villainy." All Might stood up. "I'll talk to a friend in the police force that's working on the League of Villain's case. He'll probably want to interview you officially for the record, but I'll explain what you told me to the investigators." He placed a hand on Bakugo's shoulder. "Thank you for telling me this, young Bakugo. I'm sure it must have been hard."

Bakugo nodded. _I should have said something earlier_. He got up to leave the room.

When he opened the door, Bakugo was greeted by a guilty-looking Mirio Togata.

"Ah, sorry, I wasn't able to find Mr. Aizawa…" Mirio said.

Bakugo scowled. "Whatever. I said what I needed to. Fuck off, extra."

He brushed past the 3rd year to head home, the weight in his chest just a little bit lighter but not completely gone.

* * *

"You were eavesdropping, weren't you?" Yagi Toshinori asked.

Young Togata - the 9th inheritor of One For All - was at least ashamed at being called out. "I was going to, but when I heard him mention the USJ incident I figured it had to do with the league of villains which might be related to All For One…"

Mirio Togata was not the kind of person Yagi would have chosen as his successor on his own. He was a good kid, had a strong sense of justice, and practically embodied the heroic idealism All Might had championed for years. He knew the value of practical experience and had practice with his quirk. On paper, he was the perfect candidate for the "symbol of peace." That was why both Sir Nighteye and Nezu picked him, after all. But Yagi couldn't quite shake the feeling that Mirio was too perfect, that he should have given the opportunity to someone else.

Ah well, no point in second-guessing now. He'd already passed on One For All, and there was no going back.

Yagi sighed. "It's fine, just don't make it a habit. You are correct about it relating to All For One though."

Young Togata tilted his head. "Because the Nomu, a being with multiple quirks, was with the League of Villains?"

"Yes, but also because young Izuku fits a very old pattern. All For One has held power for centuries by offering to take away unwanted quirks and giving them to people who were quirkless. In recent years he's become more discrete, but a young, quirkless boy who desperately wants a quirk would be an ideal recruit for him."

"You mean victim."

Yagi frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You heard Bakugo. Izuku's father was found dead, and the police were investigating his disappearance. Something bad happened to him. If he's the same age as Bakugo, he'd have been… 7 or 8 when he was separated from his mother and brought into the world of villains." Mirio looked Yagi dead in the eyes. "You don't seriously think a 7-year-old was able to _choose_ to join the League of Villains?"

Yagi's breath caught, and he went into a coughing fit. _Young Togata is right, how could I have been so blind?_ "No, he wouldn't have been able to. Whatever he went through, it forced him down that path."

Mirio nodded. "Plus, didn't Bakugo say he wanted to be a hero? Despite everything? A child that wanted to be a hero so badly … I doubt that he's truly as evil as All For One."

"You're right, Young Togata. I'm glad you're able to see things that way."

_Maybe I chose the right person to inherit One For All after all, _Yagi thought_. _


	22. Chapter 22: Enter Stain

**Finally, I'm giving you the Stain Arc! This was one of the hardest to write, both because it's so pivotal to Izuku's development, and because I was writing this around the time my Grandmother was dying. That... kind cut into my writing ability. I apologize for any dips in quality as a result for this chapter and any chapters I publish after this. Planning a funeral and dealing with family drama is really, really not fun.**

* * *

"Deku, could you please come down to the bar?"

Izuku paused the video he was watching - a recording of Endeavour's fight against a water-based villain - and took off his headphones. "Did something happen?"

Uraraka gave him a deadpan look. "You forgot that Kurogiri is bringing someone over, didn't you?"

"Oh, right." He closed the laptop screen. "That's today, isn't it?"

Uraraka nodded. "Come on, Shigaraki is already waiting downstairs."

"Okay, just let me get some stuff to work on while we wait." Izuku started gathering his laptop and some notebooks in his bag.

"You work to much, Deku. You know you can relax sometimes, right?"

Izuku sighed. "I would love to take a break, but I still have to redeem myself after the fiasco at the USJ."

Uraraka frowned. "That wasn't entirely your fault. Besides, we were still able to do a lot of damage without letting the kids get too hurt." She was the only other person who knew about his last-minute change due to an overactive conscience. She was the only person here who would understand why he did that.

"Yeah, well tell that to Tomura and Sensei." Izuku grumbled. "Plus, I don't have anything to show from my analysis of the Sport Festival besides figuring out where we went wrong earlier. I need to get back on their good graces."

Uraraka didn't argue with that, and just quietly led him down to the bar area.

Tomura was the only person there, nursing a drink. He looked up when the two entered the room, but didn't say anything. Uraraka went over to an armchair she'd unofficially claimed for whenever she wasn't actively working and picked up a book. Izuku settled down by one of the tables and set up his computer once again.

They rested in uneasy silence, not really acknowledging each other and focusing on their own things, as they waited for Kurogiri to return.

Once he did return via a portal right in the middle of the bar, all three of the young villains looked up.

Kurogiri appeared first, his misty form materializing from seemingly nowhere. He opened up a portal right next to him, which their guest walked through.

He was a lanky, athletic man, his posture permanently slouched such that he appeared to be an animal prepared to attack. His face was covered by a long cloth with eye slits tied behind his head. He was covered in straps and belts containing swords and knives and their sheaths, all of them in easy reach from one of his arms. All in all, he was one of the most intimidating villains Izuku had met besides Sensei.

Tomura turned to look at the new guest. "Who's this guy?"

"Tomura Shigaraki, this is the famed serial murderer, the Hero-Killer Stain."

Izuku's breath caught. _Stain? Right here? He's infamous nationally. He always permanently disables or kills three heroes in a row before vanishing into the night. Outside of always going after three heroes and always attacking in secluded areas it's impossible to track a pattern. It isn't even clear what his quirk is by the attack patterns. Reports always say he uses a blitz attack and all wounds are caused by knives, which could have been related to a quirk but now it looks like that's just a personal choice…"_

"Um, Deku? You're mumbling in front of the guest." Uraraka nudged him.

She was right. He'd been thinking out loud, and now everyone in the room was staring at him. Including Stain.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Izuku bowed several times in apology. "Just ignore me when I'm rambling, I tend to think out loud…"

"No, it's fine." Stain looked Izuku over cautiously. "You know quite a bit about me. I usually don't let people know that much without a good reason. How did you find all of that out?"

Tomura answered for him. "Izuku is our planning guy. It's his job to know this kind of stuff."

"Have you ever heard of 'Analyst' in your underground dealings?" Kurogiri asked.

"No, but I generally don't interact with people underground." Stain said. "We tend to have… differences of opinion."

Izuku frowned. _It isn't uncommon for villains to fight among themselves, but they usually have a few people they can interact with. Stain usually works alone, but I always assumed that was just with attacking people. Does he have any allies?_

"Well, you could try working with us," Uraraka suggested. "Then we can keep you updated on information like that."

Stain looked her over intensely. "Girl… what are you doing here? Both you and Analyst are children. You shouldn't be involved in dangerous things like this."

Izuku and Uraraka looked at one another. Neither of them could remember anyone protesting their participation in a villain organization, at least not in a long time. Kurogiri tended to treat them gently and gave them more guidance than he did other league members, but he never kept them out of dangerous situations. Izuku could still remember when he got his first gun on his 10th birthday and was told he'd be using it as defense while on operations.

Tomura, on the other hand, just laughed. "You're kidding, right? Izuku's been knee-deep in this stuff for years! And Uraraka? Well, she made her choice a long time ago."

Stain continued to stare at the two teenagers. "Still, it isn't right. A true hero wouldn't stand for this."

Izuku winced. His eyes jumped from Stain to Tomura, bracing for the inevitable explosive reaction. Tomura has never been able to handle even the mention of a hero. This would not end well.

A glass dissolved in his Tomura's grip. "What did you say about a true hero?"

Stain narrowed his eyes. "A true hero like All Might wouldn't allow these children to be here."

Tomura turned to Kurogiri. "I don't like this guy. I don't want him as a party member."

Izuku tensed up, and noticed that Uraraka did the same beside him. _Here it comes. Tomura's quirk gives him an advantage in close-quarters fighting, but Stain's knives can be thrown which allows him long-range attacks. We also don't know what Stain's quirk is. And that's not even getting into the difference in experience…_

"Should I interfere?" Kurogiri asked, leaning into the TV they used to communicate with Sensei.

"No. Tomura Shigaraki won't grow if we solve every problem for him," Sensei said through the TV. "He needs to figure out his purpose so he can grow as a leader and come into his own."

_So, this is all for Tomura's benefit_. Somehow, Izuku wasn't surprised to find this out.

"I see now. You're committing violence without a purpose." Stain unsheathed a knife. "You're the kind I hate the most."

Before anyone could react, Stain was in motion. He ran across the room, jumping on the bar in seconds. Kurogiri tried to create a portal and stop him, but was pushed back with the edge of a blade, a single drop of blood staining the knife in Stalin's right hand.

He licked it clean with his long tongue before stabbing Tomura in the arm.

"Tomura-nii!" Izuku cried.

"Stay back," Stain said. "I don't want to attack children, but I will if you force my hand."

Izuku stopped, trembling in fear. _He's got so much more experience than us. We don't have a chance, especially since we don't know what his quirk is…_

"Kurogiri, get this guy off me!" Tomura tried to pull the knife out with his usual four-fingered grip.

"I… I can't move!" Indeed, Kurogiri was frozen in the same place he'd been at the start of this attack.

_Is that Stain's quirk?_ Izuku considered. _But how did it activate… Oh, the blood. He licked some of Kurogiri's blood off his knife. That certainly explains why he chooses to use knives and other bladed weapons, plus how none of his victims were able to fight back… This could be bad._

Izuku swallowed. "Um, Stain? While it's true that Tomura doesn't know his purpose, he just doesn't know what he wants yet. Do you think you could… explain why you do what you do?"

Stain looked up, his entire focus on Izuku. _Well, at least he isn't attacking Tomura any more._

Izuku stepped forward. "I mean… your attacks follow a clear pattern, except for the fact that I can't find a link between the victims themselves. Sure, they're all pro heroes, but why don't you attack every hero you encounter? How does this all tie into your purpose? You're kind of an outcast in both villain and normal society, so I have no idea what's driving you."

Stain gave Izuku a hard look. For several seconds, his silence made the tension unbearable. Izuku started to worry that Stain wouldn't respond.

"This world is overflowing with fake heroes."

Izuku blinked. _Fake… heroes?_

"The so-called pro-heroes of today, they're all motivated by earning money and becoming famous," Stain continued. "They've lost sight of the hero's true purpose, which is to save lives unselfishly."

Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku noticed Uraraka bit her lip. She was listening to Stain's speech intently, and almost looked a little... guilty? He couldn't figure out what she was thinking about.

"None of them live up to that ideal, except for All Might."

"All Might?" Tomura growled. His pinky came in contact with the knife in his shoulder, starting the decay process. "Everything is always about All Might! I can't stand it, I _won't_ stand it!"

Stain's blade crumbled into dust, and Tomura stood up, ready to fight again.

Stain stood there for a moment, sizing up Tomura. He put his remaining blade back in its sheath. "I can see now that we won't be able to work together. Send me back to Hosu. I have business there."

Kurogiri obediently opened a portal, but before Stain walked through he turned to Izuku and Uraraka.

"I'd advise you two to get out of this place. I don't care what your decisions or circumstances are, children shouldn't be in villain organizations. The fact that you are is just proof of how low society has fallen."

With that, Stain walked through the portal back to his purpose.

Tomura kicked a few chairs and stools over in rage. "Who does that guy think he is!? Violence without purpose? My purpose is whatever I want it to be! And All Might! That damn symbol of peace!"

He continued to throw a tantrum for several minutes. Izuku knew it wouldn't do any good to try and stop Tomura at this point, so he went over to talk to Uraraka.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Uraraka looked down at her hands. "It's… probably for the best that Stain wasn't willing to join us."

Izuku frowned. "Why?"

"Before… all this, I wanted to be successful hero to earn lots of money and make sure my parents could live comfortable lives. In hindsight, it was kind of selfish… but I'm here now to make sure my mom doesn't get stuck with a boatload of dept, so I guess my motives haven't changed much."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Izuku looked away. "But… you're here now, and the reason your family got all that debt, wasn't it because of a hero?"

Uraraka nodded. "Yes. Mount Lady caused the accident that killed my dad and so many of his employees."

"And didn't she get away with it just because she was a hero?"

Uraraka's eyes narrowed. "Yes. The hero commission made sure all the blame was on the company, not the hero."

Izuku nodded. "It's just… If pro-heroes like Mount Lady were held up to a higher standard like they should be, than you wouldn't have to be here."

_If the heroes had done their jobs, none of us would be here._


	23. Chapter 23: The Hosu Incident

**I'm not satisfied with this chapter, but I can't figure out what the issue is so I'll just leave it as is for now. If you have any idea what I should fix, please tell me in the comments.**

***whispering* How am I going to survive NaNoWriMo if this is my quality of writing right now?**

* * *

About a week after their meeting with Stain, Izuku still couldn't get his mind off the other villain. His belief that hero society was flawed, his hatred of fake heroes, his idolization of All Might… So much of his story resonated with Izuku. He went back over his information on Stain and looked at it with this new knowledge in mind. He could now see the pattern in hero victims. The first victim was usually under investigation or rumored to be involved in some crime around the time of their death. The other two were typically high in the rankings and wealthy, though their attacks were mostly motivated by opportunity. Stain never attacked people in areas with a lot of people that could be collateral damage, even if it meant he couldn't get to important targets. He also avoided heroes who could anticipate their opponents or focused on long-range attacks, likely because of his fighting style.

_Yes, all of Stain's actions make sense once you learn what his quirk and ideals are._

Izuku rubbed his temples. He really couldn't afford to waste time on this. There was no chance of Stain working with them after Tomura's tantrum, and Izuku still had to redeem himself from the USJ debacle. Tomura had mostly forgiven him by now, but Sensei still wasn't pleased.

"Yo, Izuku! I'm heading out!" Tomura shouted.

"What?" Izuku ran out of his room. "Where are you going?"

Tomura was dressed up in his preferred villain attire, disembodied hands clinging to his limbs and covering his face. He scratched his throat intensely. "I'm going to lead an army of Nomus in Hosu, and make sure they forget about Stain's actions. They should fear the League of Villains more than they do him!"

Izuku stared at him blankly. "Do you even have a plan? Why didn't you come to me before now?"

"I don't need a plan. We'll overwhelm the heroes with a bunch of disposable Nomus, and they'll cause enough chaos to keep the world's attention."

Izuku frowned. "You're using the Nomus? Does that mean Sensei knows about this?"

"Yes, of course."

Izuku sighed. _Well, if Sensei gave the go-ahead, there's no stopping him now_. "Do you want me or Uraraka to come with you?"

Tomura paused. "I doubt Uraraka will be able to contribute anything, but if you want to come and keep troublesome people off our back that would be useful."

Izuku nodded. "Give me a second to get my gun."

A few minutes later, Izuku was on the rooftops of Hosu. The Nomus had only been in the city for a short while and were already wrecking havoc. Civilian screams permeated the sky. Destruction made the major streets impassible. Fires broke out every few meters.

Tomura looked over it all and gloated. "With this, they'll know to fear the League of Villains!"

"Maybe, but what purpose does it serve?" Izuku asked.

"Obviously, it's to make me feel better."

Izuku sighed. "You can't just do things like this for the hell of it, Tomura-nii. You need to have a goal, and you need to plan ahead."

"Yeah, well, that's why we keep you around, isn't it?"

Izuku looked down over the city. He noticed some movement in a back alleyway, far away from all the action. _Is that…?"_

"I'm going to check out something down there," Izuku said. "Call me if you need anything."

He didn't bother to wait for a response, instead climbing down to the streets and running along the back alleyways.

It didn't take him long to find the source of the disturbance. Stain was standing over a hero, his knife ready to strike. Izuku would have just chalked it up to the usual attack pattern except…

There were two heroes on the ground. Native, a relatively well-known pro, was slumped against the wall. The other hero, the one Stain was crouched over, was familiar, but Izuku couldn't place his name.

"You're going after two in one attack? That's not your typical pattern."

Stain looked up. "Oh, it's you boy. Analyst, wasn't it? What are you doing here?"

The hero under Stain looked up. "You… you're from the USJ…"

Izuku's eyes widened in recognition. _Tenya Iida, seat 4 in class 1-A this year at UA. Also the class representative. Quirk is Engine, which allows him to run faster than normal with the engines in his legs… What's a student doing here?_ He turned to Stain. "I thought you said you didn't kill children?"

"I said do if they force my hand." Stain said. "This student deliberately came after me. Not to mention, he didn't even try to save the other injured hero." He motioned to Native. "He may be child, but he is no better than the other fake heroes."

Izuku frowned. _Everything I've seen about Tenya Iida says that he's a stickler for the rules. Why would he act like this? He's protective of his classmates, of course, but why… _"Oh, I see. Ingenium, he was one of Stain's most recent victims, wasn't he?"

Iida grit his teeth and tried to move, but Stain's quirk was already in effect.

"What does Ingenium have to do with this?" Stain asked.

"Tensei Iida, better known as Ingenium, is young Iida's older brother." Izuku explained.

Tears fell from Iida's face. "My brother is an honorable man… and was a true hero. What you did to him was unforgivable!"

"And so you embarked on the path of vengeance," Stain said. "That is the furthest thing from heroic. You can't be saved."

Izuku looked at the heroic studies student, crying and fearful. _He's a hero, one of Kachan's classmates. Plus, the main reason the USJ was such a failure was because he was able to get out and get the pros. I should hate him. But…_

"Are you sure he can't change?"

Stain narrowed his eyes. "I've seen his kind a hundred times. They're all the same. Their only hope is to cull the herd."

Izuku swallowed. "Still, he's not even a licensed hero yet. Everything I've seen about this boy tells me that he values the lives of others, and isn't that the essence of being a hero? You've made your point. He's seen what the path of vengeance gets him. Don't you want to give him another chance?"

Iida looked directly at Izuku. "Wha- Why are you helping me? You're a villain."

Izuku just looked down. "Honestly, I don't know."

"I do." Stain stepped off Iida and walked up to Izuku. "You want to protect the person in front of you who's in danger. It may be a worthless effort, but it's the mark of a true hero."

Izuku's eyes widened. He backed up. "What? A hero? Me?"

"You'd be a far better hero than most of those fakes, if only you hadn't taken the path of villainy."

"Even if… I don't have a quirk?"

Stain laughed. "Quirks and power have nothing to do with being a hero. If you've been able to survive this long around the people in that League of Villains, you'd be a hero to be reckoned with."

Izuku broke down in tears. "Thats… that's all I ever wanted. That's all I wanted for so long!"

Stain paused. "Ah, I see now. You didn't choose to go down this path, did you?"

Izuku froze. "Wha-What do you mean?"

"You're scared of something, but it's not me. You sought me out, and understand the meaning of a true hero, unlike your friend Shigaraki."

"Tomura-nii…" Izuku looked away. "I love him like a brother, but he just doesn't understand. He's obsessively loyal to Sensei."

Stain stepped closer. "Is this Sensei the one you're so afraid of?"

Izuku winced. "Sensei… All For One… When I was little, I thought of him as an all-powerful god. I know better now, but still... "

"What did he do to you?"

Izuku bit his lip. He tried to remember what exactly All For One did, but his mind just didn't want to go there. "I don't remember the details, but I remember being taken away from my mom as our apartment burned. I remember being locked in that house until I learned to behave. I remember… All For One's strength is overwhelming. No hero could hope to defeat him."

"And so, no hero came to save you," Sain said.

Izuku didn't confirm nor deny that statement.

Stain stepped forward again. "What if I took you away?"

"What?" Izuku was flabbergasted. "Why would you…"

"I'd never considered training another or working as a group, but I can't stand by and watch as a child in need all but begs me for help." Stain said. "I'm not saying it will be easy living or even safe, but if you want to get away from that monster you call Sensei…"

Izuku ran up and grabbed Stain. "Please! I'll do anything! Just get me out of that place!"

Stain smiled. "In that case, I'll be happy to take you in."

Izuku felt tears running down his face again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have no idea how much this means… Oh, do you remember Uraraka? Her situation is different from mine, but she didn't really chose to be there either…"

He looked behind Stain. On the ground, where Tenya Iida and Native had been, there were only bloodstains.

Izuku's breath caught. "They got away."

Stain frowned, turning around.

Izuku's tears turned into hysterical sobs. "Oh my god, I'm so, so sorry. It's my fault, I distracted you…"

"It's fine. I can always go after other fakes." Stain said. "Saving you is far more important. Hopefully that student learned a lesson from this, and I won't have to go after him again."

Izuku swallowed. "But… what if they get help? The other heroes should be busy with the Nomus, but if they say they found the Hero killer…"

"You're right. We should move."

Izuku nodded, but before he could ask Stain where they should go a sharp claw grabbed the back of his shirt. "What…"

Stain growled. "Nomu! Let him go!"

_Nomu? Oh, Tomura-nii must have sent them out for me…_

Stain crouched down to jump up and attack the Nomu, but was interrupted by a group of heroes running into the alley.

"Stain!" The one in front shouted. It was Endeavor, the #2 hero.

When he heard that, Stain turned around, his blades out to face his foe.

"Endeavor! The worst of the fakes! I will destroy you!" he shouted.

As Izuku was carried away by the Nomu, he couldn't help but analyze the situation below. _There are at least 3 experienced pros in that group, including Endeavor. They're likely tired from dealing with the Nomus, but still have the advantage in numbers. Stain may be mostly rested, but he's only one man and his quirk relies on getting close to his opponent. Endeavor, on the other hand, can shoot his flames a great distance…_

Izuku knew how this would end. _It looks like Stain won't be taking me away from Sensei after all…_

Somehow, it didn't hurt as bad to know that. After all, someone had finally tried to save him.


	24. Chapter 24: The Attack on Mount Lady

**Remember when I said chapter 18 was the farthest I'd go in the timeline of this story? Well, I lied. I was writing this chapter at the same time and I published that so I think they got tangled up in my head. Sorry about that!**

**That being said... if you're someone who can't handle cliffhangers, GET OUT NOW! This chapter ends with a pretty significant twist and although I do know where I want to go from there, I won't be touching this fic until after November ends AT MINIMUM. And even then, I'll probably be editing and filling out the earlier scenes to publish under a different name as a more coherent story before I even think about adding more content. I'm so, so sorry, but I unfortunately have stuff to do and can't spend my entire life on this fic.**

**On the plus side, you get some more UrarakaxIzuku action here! Though that might not be a good thing, depending on your point of view...**

**I said it before and I'll say it again: Don't be afraid to give constructive criticism. I literally have a long list of notes on my phone of stuff I need to fix in the rewrite and I suspect I'll be finding even more within the month.**

* * *

"Are you excited, Uraraka?" Izuku asked.

Uraraka bit her lip. "Somewhat, but… Are you sure we should be doing this?"

Izuku frowned. "What do you mean? Mount Lady has proven time and again that she doesn't fit the criteria of a true hero. She's the reason your father died and your family was stuck with a load of debt. Isn't it right that we take her down and expose her for the fraud that she is?"

"Technically, the hero commision were the ones who covered the whole thing up."

"But Mount Lady still holds most of the blame. And every time we take down a pro hero, especially if we expose their wrongdoing, the commision loses some of its power."

Uraraka sighed. "I get that, but I just can't shake this feeling that things won't go our way."

"That's why I have so many contingency plans in place." Izuku touched her arm. "If you really don't want to, we can postpone the attack for a later date…"

Uraraka shook her head. "No, this is the best day for us to do this. It's probably just nerves."

"Okay then. Let's go."

Mount Lady isn't a fan of patrols.

She knows why she has to do your presence known, get a chance to interact with citizens, defer thoughts of crime, etc. etc. Didn't change the fact that they were so _boring_. She could be doing a lot more interesting stuff such as interviews, filming commercials, and flirting with commision representatives. Those were also important for her image.

But no, she had to go out and walk the streets, letting random perverts take her picture just to prove she was doing her job. Ah well, maybe she'll be able to get some free food from a sympathetic food stand owner. It was almost lunchtime after all.

She noticed a food truck owner that was a big fan of hers and headed his way. Before she could could flag him down, someone bumped into her.

Mount Lady frowned. "You should watch where you're going."

"Oh, sorry about that," the stranger said. "I've been looking for you, Yu Takeyama."

_Why is he using my civilian name?_ "You know you can make an appointment with my agency, right?"

The stranger smirked. "Oh, this isn't something you want to be on the record."

He raised his head, giving Mount Lady a clear view of his face. Her heart froze.

_That's the guy who almost killed Endeavour!_

Mount Lady leaned back into a fighting position. "What do you want, villain?"

Analyst - that's his name - laughed. "Why, we're here to judge you, of course!"

"We?" Mount Lady asked.

The civilians ran away, having figured out that a villain fight was about to break out. There were only five people that didn't try to escape. They walked in the opposite direction of the others, surrounding Mount Lady and supporting Analyst. She recognized four of them from the Quirk Revolutionaries' debut. The fifth was wearing a white mask covering half his face, but he was somewhat familiar.

Analyst unzipped his hoodie and pulled out a… net? "Our current society is unwilling and unable to prosecute you for your crimes, so it is up to the Quirk Revolutionaries to dispense justice!"

Mount Lady grit her teeth. "I have no idea what crimes you're talking about. The only criminals here are you!" She began to grow, reaching out to attack the villain in front of her.

In a flash, a rope was wrapped around her neck, strangling her.

"Good job, Spinner, Elemental." Analyst said.

_Their plan is just to strangle me?_ Mound Lady thought. _Well, I'll just throw them off when I get big. _

She continued to grow, but the rope continued to bite into her neck. She fell on her back, trying to give herself some slack. She looked out of the corner of her eye and realized the rope was attached to a manhole cover. She'd be able to pull it out easily enough if she was at full size, but in order to get that big she'd have to strangle herself.

_Maybe I can slip out if I go back to normal size_. She started to shrink again.

Spinner grabbed the rope and pulled it taught. "You're not slipping away that easily."

Analyst walked up beside her, drabing the net over her legs as he went. "Your weaknesses are so obvious, it's a wonder you were able to pass a certified Hero Studies Program. Your strength is proportional to your size, so as long as you can't grow you're essentially powerless. You can't fight in enclosed areas, but for our purposes it's easy to simply make it so you'll hurt yourself if you try to grow."

Mount Lady tried to grow again, but stopped immediately when the rope around her neck tightened uncomfortably. She thrashed around to try and get out, but only succeeded in getting tangled up in the net.

Finally, she stopped struggling and simply glared at the villains, recognizing defeat. "Well then, what are you waiting for? Your plan worked; you've got me."

Analyst pulled out a gun. "Comet?"

The girl Mount Lady recognized as Comet stepped forward. She threw back her hood, revealing a young, round face framed by a bob cut.

"Do you recognize her?" Analyst asked Mount Lady.

"...Should I?" Mount Lady gave the girl a closer look, but still couldn't remember anything.

Analyst's gun shook with rage. "You really don't remember? Of course not, you don't even realize how much harm you caused..."

"Deku." Comet placed her hand on top of Analyst's, taking hold of the gun. "It's okay."

"But you shouldn't have…"

Comet shook her head. "You said you'd let me choose her punishment, right? Let me handle this."

Analyst stared at Comet for a moment, but eventually relinquished the gun to her.

Comet turned to look at Mount Lady again. "It would have been.. almost a year and a half now. You were in the middle of a villain fight. I think it was against Trapezius Head Gear? You were so focused on the fight, you accidentally crashed into a construction site."

Mount Lady frowned. She could vaguely remember that, but didn't remember anything special about the incident.

"My father and five of his employees were killed by a falling I-beam."

Mount Lady sucked in her breath. "That… That was because of me?"

"Yes." Comet walked up until she was standing on Mount Lady's right side, staring down at her. "I would have understood it if that was all that happened - After all, it was the villain's fault for attacking in the first place. But when we tried to get money for dad's and the employee's life insurance, the hero commision covered everything up. They claimed the accident happened because my father didn't follow safety protocols. My family's company was liable for the accident, and had to pay for both my father's funeral and reparations to the dead employee's families"

Mount Lady shook her head. "I swear, I didn't know anything about that! The hero commision took care of everything I had nothing to do with it!"

"I believe you." Comet's eyes were kind. "Honestly, I don't think I really hate you. This was mostly Analyst's idea, but I can see the wisdom in it. What I really hate is the hero commision, but they're too big to attack directly. This is the only way to cause real change."

Comet kneeled down and pushed Mount Lady on her side. "I'm going to shoot you directly in your spinal cord. It shouldn't be lethal, but you'll be paralized from the waist down. You'll never be able to work as a hero again.

Tears fell from Mount Lady's eyes, leaving tracks along the side of her nose and to her ear. She didn't make a sound though. _If what she's saying is true, maybe this is what I deserve…_

"Get away from her, you villains!"

Analyst turned to the new intruders. "It's Fatgum. He got here faster than I expected."

Dabi frowned. "Hey, who are those two with him?"

Indeed, Fatgum was running through the street in their direction, flanked by two other heroes. They weren't as recognizable as the pro, and from their ages were likely still in high school.

Analyst swore. "That's Suneater. I only know the basics of his abilities. The other one…"

Elemental's breath caught. "Kirishima."

Analyst ran over to Comet's side. "We need to finish up quickly. Dabi, focus on Fatgum. Keep him away from us. Spinner, Toga, you get Suneater. Elemental…" He looked at the final member, worried.

Elemental nodded. "I'll handle Kirishima. I know his style."

Analyst didn't look happy. "Stick to one side. I don't want to expose you to early."

Elemental nodded and joined his team members in attacking the heroes.

Analyst grabbed Comet's shoulder. "Hurry up. We need to go."

"R-right." Coment's body, fro her arms to her knees, was shaking. "Mind holding her for me? I need both hands to shoot straight."

Analyst kneeled down next to her, replacing her hands in holding Mount Lady on her side.

Comet took a deep breath. And another. And another. She had the gun in two hands and it was pressed up against the hero's back, but she didn't pull the trigger. At least, not yet.

"Please, Uraraka." Analyst whispered. "I'm not sure how much longer everyone else will be able to hold out."

Comet nodded. "You're right. Just…"

An octopus tentacle shot out and knocked both of them back. Analyst quickly recovered and pulled out a knife. "Dammit, Suneater!"

Suneater was holding both Toga and Spinner down with tentacles covered in clam shells bursting from his left hand. The tentacles in his right hand shot out to attack Analyst and Comet again, but were disintegrated by red flames.

Elemental ran to support his allies, followed closely by Kirishima. Suneater backed up slightly, nursing his burt tentacles. Kirishima reached out, about to grab Elemental's hoodie.

"Shit!" Analyst grabbed the gun beside him and skillfully shot Kirishima.

The bullet didn't do any damage. Kirishima had instinctively hardened his hand. It did distract him though, and gave Elemental a chance to knock Suneater off his allies.

"He's got a gun!" Kirishima shouted.

Analyst started to back away. He almost tripped after a few steps. His leg had gotten tangled up in the net. He leaned down and quickly cut the rope with his knife.

The distraction was just enough for Kirishima. "You're going down!"

A few steps later, his leg was encased in ice, a very familiar cold holding him in place.

"Fire… and ice?" Kirishima breathed.

Analyst looked up. "Dammit, I told you to stick to one side!"

Elemental finched, but shot a red flame at Suneater again.

A new voice came from the opposite side of the street. "We got here just in time!"

Analyst turned around. The Dragoon Hero, Ryuku, was running into the fray. She was followed by her own interns, Nejire-chan and Asui.

_With this, we're basically outnumbered_, Analyst realized.

Dabi backed up into Analyst. "What's the plan, bossman?"

"We need to retreat," Analyst said.

Dabi looked side to side. "I doubt the exit plan you came up with will work in this scenario."

Analyst bit his lip. _He's right_.

"Deku… my leg is stuck!" Comet shouted.

Analyst turned to her. The net was tangled up in her left leg, caught in the straps of her air thrusters.

He kneeled down. "I'll cut you out!"

"No time!" Dabi summoned his blue flame.

"You'll burn her along with the net!" Analyst shouted.

Ryuku, now in dragon form, jumped to attack them. Dabi was able to push her back with his flame, but only barely.

Comet breathed heavily. "I've got an idea. All of you need to get together and let me touch you."

Analyst frowned. "What are you…"

"Guys! Huddle up!" Dabi shouted.

Toga, Spinner, and Elemental ran to the others. One by one, Comet touched each of her teammates.

Suneater took a moment to breath. Nejire-chan ran up to him.

"The Quirk Revolutionaries… The leader is Analyst." Nejire-chan said.

Suneater nodded. "He's the one Mirio is interested in."

Comet waited to touch Analyst last. "Everybody, grab onto Deku. Elemental, Dabi, you two should be able to navigate with your fire." She looked Analyst straight in the eye. "It'll be just like in practice, but without the weighted line."

Analyst's head spun from all the information he was trying to process. "Right… that'll work… And you'll be following with your jets?"

Comet smiled sadly. "There isn't enough time to get me untangled."

_Wait, then how will she…_ "No! There's got to be another way! Just give me a second to think of something…"

"Goodby, Deku."

Just before Comet threw him into the air, Izuku felt the other members of the team grab him. Dabi and Shoto grabbed an elbow each, Spinner clung to his shoulder, and Toga wrapped her arms around his waist. They shot up into the sky together, weightless.

"No! Send us back down! I have to save her!" Izuku shouted.

"Idiot! You said we needed to retreat!" Dabi shouted.

"We can't leave her!"

"Please… Izukun…" Toga's weightless tears wet the back of Izuku's neck. "Bestie wouldn't want this."

The tears were what finally snapped Izuku to his senses. "Toga… you guys… I'm so…"

"Don't say you're sorry," Shoto said. "You did everything you could."

"Uraraka sacrificed herself to save us." Spinner reminded him. "It was her choice."

They all floated in silence after that. They continued to ascend, aiming for the clouds above. Whenever air resistance caused them to slow down, Shoto and Dabi would shoot off fire blasts to propel everyone up again.

Once they broke through the clouds and reached an altitude where they struggled to breath, Dabi changed their direction to start looking for a landing area for whenever Uraraka released them from her quirk.

Izuku was suddenly struck with a thought. "Um… guys? How are we going to explain this to the kids?"

Nobody provided an answer. In the end, it would be Izuku who'd sit Eri and Kota down and tearfully explain why Big Sis Uraraka wasn't coming home.


	25. Chapter 25: A Burst of Conscience

**And now, we've reached the end of my post-something-every-day-for-a-month challenge! Now to get ready for the self-torture we call NaNoWriMo...**

**Updates for this are going to stop for quite a while. I'm planning on posting a new chapter in December telling you where you can find the rewrite, but I may still post some more first drafts of this AU as inspiration comes. I do have an outline for this fic including a satisfactory ending, but... well... It's long. Like, I'll probably be making 4 separate stories in this series. And what I'm published maybe covers one and a half. Please bare with me.**

**And again, please give me constructive criticism! I reallydp want to make this a better story in the rewrite but can only do so if you tell me what's wrong. Even just general impressions of which chapters work and which don't are welcome. Also call me out on any plot holes or inconsistencies you see. I'm a masochist who actually wants complaints!**

* * *

"Deku? What are you doing?" Uraraka asked.

"Planning Tomura's attack on UA." Izuku said, not even looking up from the paper he was scribbling on.

Uraraka stared at him in shock. "I thought you'd talked him out of it?"

"That was before I hacked into UA's school database."

Uraraka continued to stare at him in shock. She stood there, staring at him, for nearly a minute until Shigaraki came out to join them.

"What's going on with you?" Shigaraki asked.

Uraraka turned to Shigaraki. "What did you do to Deku? Why is he suddenly helping with your insane plan to attack a hero school and their students?"

Shigaraki held up his hands. "Hey, I didn't do anything, this is all Izuku's idea."

"Tomura-nii, do you know who will be helping us?" Izuku asked.

"Well, Kurogiri, obviously," Shigaraki said. "Uraraka, as well. You and me."

Izuku rolled his eyes. "I know that already. I mean which of the hired grunts were you able to get?"

"Oh. I'm still recruiting people."

"Can you get me a list of whoever you have so far? I need to start determining what environments they'll fight in best."

Uraraka couldn't believe what she was seeing. _What happened to the Izuku who worked hard to keep civilians out of harm's way? The one who only did what he absolutely had to?_

Shigaraki frowned. "What environments they'll fight in best?"

"Mm-hm." Izuku turned back to the paper. "My plan is to attack at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. It has a variety of environments which may be beneficial or detrimental to fighters depending on their quirks. We'll have Kurogiri send everybody to environments that benefit our people and make fighting more difficult for our opponents. I already have quirk information on both the students and the teachers, but I need to know who we're bringing with us to finish the plan."

"Oh. That makes sense." Shigaraki nodded. "I'll get you a list of everyone I've gotten so far by the end of the day. Do you have a specific date you want everything finalized?"

"I should be good so long as you don't change anything within 2 days of the operation," Izuku said. "It all depends on the day you want it all to go down. Want to pick a date?"

"I'm assuming you have narrowed down the options?"

"Of course. It needs to be at a point when both class 1-A is at the USJ and when All Might will be taking part in the exercise. Luckily exercises outside the classroom have to be planned in advance, so I found out when 1-A had the USJ booked and cross-checked it against days All Might was supposed to teach them." Izuku pulled out a calendar and circled three dates. "Any of these options would work, but I'd suggest waiting until at least after the Sports Festival…"

"Sorry Deku," Uraraka interrupted, "but why is it so important the 1-A is present for the attack?" Izuku was acting weird, and she had to figure out why.

"Personal reasons," Izuku said, explaining absolutely nothing.

Shigaraki barely glanced at the calendar. "Go with the first one."

"But that's before the Sports Festival!" Izuku protested.

"So?" Shigaraki said. "You only watch that thing to get info on the students, and you've already got that from the school's database."

"Only basic stats! I don't know anything about fighting styles, psychological weaknesses…"

"You're overthinking this, Izuku." Shigaraki rolled his eyes. "We'll be ready by the earlier date. They're just students."

Izuku froze. Shigaraki walked away to play another game in his room, but Izuku was absolutely still. His face was stuck in an expression mixing sheer terror and frantic calculation.

"Deku?" Uraraka asked cautiously. "Is something wrong?"

"I…" Izuku moved his eyes to her without moving his head. "I'm not sure."

Uraraka sat down across from him. "This isn't like you. Aren't you…" she bit her lip. "I thought you said you didn't like hurting people unnecessarily."

"Yes, of course."

"Then why are you planning an attack on a bunch of students?" She asked.

Izuku's eyes widened in horror. His hands shook. "Oh god, what have I done?" He covered his face with his right hand. "I should have… I was just so caught up in getting back at Kachan… Oh God, Tomura's going to kill a bunch of kids! I mean, yeah the're future heroes, but they've barely started training. They won't even have provisional license yet!" He was hyperventilating.

_Is this a panic attack?_ Uraraka wondered.

"Woah, calm down." she grabbed his shoulders and made him face her. "It's okay. Well, no, it's not okay, but at least it hasn't happened yet? I'm sure we can fix this. Can you tell Shigaraki to call of the attack?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, no way. This is an opportunity to not only harm UA's reputation but also attack All Might. I've already told him the basics of the plan, he won't accept it if I change my mind…"

Izuku looked down at his notes again. Uraraka couldn't figure out what he was focussing on, but it must have given him an idea.

"Hey, Uraraka, there may be a way to pull off this attack and still keep the students from getting killed. Can I rely on your help?"

Uraraka smiled. _That's the Deku I know._ "Of course. Just tell me what I need to do."


End file.
